Maurice Paul Krafft

Maurice Krafft was born on March 25, 1946 in Mulhouse, France. He first became interested in volcanoes during a family holiday to Naples and Stromboli when he was seven years old. He joined the Société géologique de France when he was 15, and went on to study geology, first at the University of Besançon, and later at the University of Strasbourg. There he met his future wife Katia Conrad, who shared his passion for volcanoes. They married in 1970 and honeymooned at Stromboli, where they photographed its near-continuous eruption. Recognising the public interest in the documentation of volcanic eruptions, they began to make a career of filming them. The Kraffts were often the first to arrive at the scene of an active volcano, and became well known in the volcanologist community. Their footage of the effects of volcanic eruptions on the surrounding areas often played a considerable part in gaining the cooperation of local authorities faced with volcanic threats. Following the onset of activity at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, the Kraffts' footage of the impact of the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz lahar in Colombia, which had caused the Armero tragedy, was shown to large numbers of people, including the country's then-president, Corazon Aquino, and was attributed to convincing a number of sceptics that an evacuation of the area was necessary. The Kraffts also produced several books and documentaries about volcanoes, and appeared in various TV shows and films. They were known for their courage and enthusiasm, often coming within feet of lava flows and pyroclastic surges. Maurice is famous for saying in a video that "I am never afraid because I have seen so much eruptions in 23 years that even if I die tomorrow, I don't care", coincidentally on the day before his death at Mt. Unzen. On June 3, 1991, Maurice and Katia Krafft were killed by a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen, Japan, along with 41 other people, mostly journalists and scientists. Their bodies were recovered and cremated during a Catholic funeral service, and were placed at the Anyo-ji Shrine in Shimabara, which was dedicated to the victims of the 1792 Unzen earthquake and tsunami. Their ashes were subsequently interred at Katia's family plot in France. Since their deaths, their work has been featured in two documentary films by Werner Herzog, Into the Inferno (2016) and The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2022), and a further film, Fire of Love (2022), depicted their lives, relationship and careers using their archived footage.