Cover photo of Maurice and Katia Krafft taken by Jack Lockwood, USGS, at Gulunggung, Indonesia, August 1982.

Maurice : I was interested in volcanoes early. I went to see an active volcano when I was seven years old the Stromboli volcano. My father showed me Stromboli in eruption from near...maybe too near.(laughs) But he was not a volcanologist. I was really fascinated by volcanoes. So when I was fifteen years old, I had already seen three or four eruptions, because my father was interested in eruptions. I was living in the Rhinegraben. In the Rhinegraben, you have a volcano that is fifteen million years old. So I went to study those rocks when I was twelve years old. And I became a member of the Geological Society of France when I was fourteen years old. I wrote my first paper at that time. After that I went to the university, and I became a geologist at the university of Strasbourg.

Because it was impossible to find a job in France in 1968 to study active volcanoes to study volcanoes was easy but to study active volcanoes, in the state universities it wasn't possible. So that was why I created my own Center of Volcanology, that is mainly specialized in the phenomenology of eruptions.
So we go filming eruptions. we are studying eruptions when we can, and try to gather all the documentation we can on eruptions. In twenty years, we have seen 150 eruptions. You cannot find another single volcanologist that has seen so many (distinct pause following a gentle kick in the shins from Katia) but Katia! Katia has seen twenty eruptions more than me, because sometimes I cannot go there, because I am making lectures and she is more free than me. So I make a complex of inferiority!(laughs) I think I may throw her in a crater next time to I can be Number One!

Katia : (laughing) Oh, don't say that for the young people!

Maurice : ( In mock shock) Oh! I've put it on the tape recorder! Now I shall have to throw the tape recorder away! (general laughter).

JCT : I will edit. Don't worry.

Maurice : Anyway, I am interested in volcanic eruptions because it is bigger than us. It is very mysterious. We want to understand how they are working. That is what makes them interesting. If we understand how they are working, it will not be an interesting subject anymore. Mysterious...bigger than us. We are nothing compared to
volcanoes! Is is a very very fascinating job because we have run here, run there...We live just to run!

Katia makes a side comment in French. Maurice laughs and translates that it is especially helpful to RUN.

Maurice : (continuing) What a fantastic in active volcanoes is...you know, a geologist, for instance, he works on Precambrian rocks or whatever, okay, on old volcanoes, and he tries to make a reconstruction of what happened. If he is wrong, there is no consequence. And sometimes it is very difficult to know if he's right or wrong. But when you work on active volcanoes, the volcano will give you the answer. But after you say, "This volcano will not erupt" and it explodes, then you know you were wrong and you have done a wrong assessment. So, I like this very much because the answer is always coming from the volcano itself!

Katia makes a rather long comment in French.

Maurice : Yes, and what is important for us, is that we are scientists, but we are really concerned about people living around the volcano. To have a work in science where you can find out how volcanoes work, while in the meantime you have a responsibility concerning populations what you are doing can be useful. Science for science: we need people who are making fundamental science that is directly useful to people is very interesting. A challenge!

JCT : What's the most interesting volcano you've worked on?

Maurice : (Following a thoughtful pause.) Oh, too much volcanoes to tell you what we really prefer.

More comments by Katia, to which Maurice nods.

Maurice : I would say that Mount St. Helens was probably a highlight, and a very important moment for explosive volcanism. Also, Mauna Loa in 1984. The twenty-fifth of March My birthday! We were there! It was my most wonderful birthday present! Fantastic!!

We were very much concerned by Ruiz, of course, and a lot of eruptions in Indonesia that are not so well known here. We were the only volcanologists on ( name is unfamiliar and unclear on tape meant to follow up on it ), and that was good, to be the only volcanologist there. You see all those people going away from it,. and we were doing just the opposite!(laughs) In fact, for me you have two kinds of volcanoes: the kind that are generally peaceful, basaltic and so on, spectacular for tourist. To be killed on those volcanoes is very difficult. You have to be an idiot.

Katia : No, no, no!

Maurice : All right. You have to have bad luck. But those volcanoes are beautiful to
look at and and easy to study.

But we are more interested by explosive volcanoes. Andesites and such are the killers. And we would like to make it so those kill less people, or no people at at. And we found that by filming volcanoes very carefully and showing the risk and hazards of eruptions, this can be very useful to save lives.

We are convinced that for people to die on volcanoes, it is mainly for two reasons: first, volcanologist are generally not convincing enough with populations..

Katia interrupts in rapid fire French. Maurice nods vociferously.

Maurice : Yes..it is the governments and the populations that do not trust the volcanologists enough. And volcanologists do not make themselves understood. A good volcanologist, for me, must be an excellent scientist, but must be good in communication with the authorities, and this not generally the case.

If people die it is because volcanologists are not convincing enough with authorities in very boring reports that mudflows will come down the mountain, the authorities think they mean lava flows. So when they are told how fast the flows will travel, they still think it is lava flows and and say, "Oh that is impossible!"

So when we show them the pictures, the videos, like the ones we are making for IAVCEI now, we can go and show them the mudflows.

JCT : Do you use a telephoto lens, or do you really get that close?

Maurice : You know, you cannot use much telelens for good pictures because thee is not enough light. We are using only 64 ASA. We may use more than that, but the biggest telelens we use is 180. We never add those big telelenses. I must add, you know, when we were young we were using no telelens at all, but now there is a correlation between getting older and taking more telelens.(general laughter) we are growing more cautious as we grow older.

JCT : Tell me about times you had to pack up and run to an eruption.

Maurice : Oh yes. There was a time we received a call, and we had to go to an eruption in Iceland, and before we could go back home we receive a call from Hawaii and when we get to Hawaii we had to run off to Indonesia. Terrible work, yes?! You never know where you will go or what you will do. Terrible! (He was smiling broadly when he said it.)

JCT : Have you ever found yourself in really dangerous situations where you wondered what you were doing there and how you were going to get out?

Katia : You mean on volcanoes? (laughter from both)

Maurice : No, you can't be afraid or panic until after you uhave done your work. When you are really close to the action you have no time to be afraid...you have too much things to think about just to do your job. So it is only after when you have finished your job and you are far from the volcano and you see the activity the blocks falling, the pyroclastic flow going, where you were standing half an hour before. Then you have some problem to stand, you know? Where we were really afraid was not on natural volcanoes. Political volcanoes are much more dangerous than natural volcanoes! We were living with volcanoes for twenty years. For us, the volcanoes are our friends...like pets, you know, very large pets.

Katia : Like tigers...we are not sure if we eat them, or they will eat us.

Maurice : Yes. We are volcano eaters! But sometimes the volcano may eat you . That is always the problem: who will eat the other?

I then turned to interviewing Katia, and Maurice excused himself, saying that Katia can't get a word in edgewise when he's around. I wanted to ask her some more personal questions.

JCT: How did you get interested in volcanoes?

Katia : I was fourteen years old, in school in France. I thought I would be a geologist first and then a volcanologist. I was very much fascinated with volcanoes.

JCT : Did you meet Maurice on a volcano?

Katia : No, we met in the university at the end of our studies. He was in geology, I was in chemistry, and then we met and we stayed together to work on volcanoes.

JCT : How long have you been married?

Katia : We've been together for twenty years now. Two years and then we were married.

JCT : Do you have any children?

Katia : No, it was not possible for us the way we work From one hour to another we may have to go far away. The volcanoes are our children...sometimes very nasty, spoiled children that demand all of our attention. We cannot even make plans because we may have to suddenly go and leave everything. We have never a quiet life. We can never schedule anything. We may plan a holiday, but we never go, because a volcano erupts and we have to go. Also, if you have children, you have responsibilities, and you cannot take risks on an active volcano.

JCT :What would you say to a young person who might be thinking of becoming a
volcanologist?

Katia : You must fit your personality to the kind of volcanology. If you are very quiet, you will make it in laboratories. If you are more interested in dynamics of eruptions you will have more of an adventurous life.

We find this really fantastic to try to explain these volcanoes. Also, it is something wonderful, something powerful! So if you like the powerful side of nature, something that you cannot contain, then you will be very happy on a volcano!
You must be strong inside and also physically, to do what we do. And be a good scientist. Or you can be a good scientist and not physically strong and you can make it also in another kind of volcanology. What is important is that you love it!

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