Haroun Tazieff
Haroun Tazieff (Warszawa, May 11, 1914 — Paris, February 6, 1998) was a French volcanologist and geologist. He was a famous cinematographer of volcanic eruptions and lava flows, and the author of several books about volcanoes.
Born in Warsaw, Russian Empire, his father was a Tatar Muslim doctor, and his mother a Polish chemist and doctor in political sciences. He lived in Brussels, Belgium, starting in 1917. After his father's death early during World War I, Tazieff remained officially stateless until 1936 when he adopted Belgian nationality. He received a degree in agronomy in Gembloux in 1938, and another degree in geology at University of Liege in 1944. He was later a "secrétaire d'Etat" in France, in charge of prevention of major risks.
Tazieff spent his life time studying active volcanoes and deep caves in all parts of the world. In 1948 he went to Lake Kivu in Congo to observe a new volcano which he later named Kituro. Tazieff was able to set up his camp very close to the volcano while it was erupting violently. Though he managed to take a number of brilliant photographs, he could not stay near the volcano for very long. He noticed that a river of liquid rock was coming towards him. It threatened to surround him completely, but Tazieff managed to escape just in time. He waited until the volcano became quiet and he was able to return two days later. Tazieff often risked his life in this way.
After the circumstances surrounding the evacuation of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe, that he had advised against, he was fired as the director of volcanology from Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and started working for Laboratoire de Volcanologie, Centre de Faibles Radioactivities, Gif-sur-Yvette, France in 1977.
On his passing in 1998, Tazieff was interred in Cimetière de Passy in the Parisian quarter of Passy.
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