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00:25The sound on explosive volcanoes is generally terrible.
00:30It's so strong, then we cannot speak to each other anymore.
00:39Sometimes people tell us, why don't you put earplugs?
00:42Never. It's a good way to be killed.
00:44Because sometimes you have very, very small noise, a whistle and so on.
00:50That means a lot. It means that you have to go.
00:52To be continued...
00:59Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole.
01:44For more than 20 years, Maurice and Katya Kraft have traveled the world in search of active volcanoes.
01:52From Iceland to Hawaii, from Africa to Indonesia, they are often the first to reach the scene of an interruption.
02:09The Krafts are scientists, probing some of the enduring mysteries of the Earth.
02:18But they've also moved beyond the laboratory to a less conventional pursuit.
02:24Their tools are cameras, and their goal to document the great eruptions of our time.
02:30Oh, yeah.
02:32Oh, yeah.
02:32Oh, yeah.
02:34Oh, yeah.
02:36Oh, yeah.
02:40Hey, hey.
02:42Nice job.
02:43Good job.
02:43Yes, girl.
02:44How you feelin'?
02:48How you feelin'?
02:50How you feelin''?
03:16When they're not on the road, the crafts can be found where they were born and raised.
03:21Among the vineyards of Alsace in eastern France.
03:25We stay here because we were born here. There is no reason as volcanologists to stay here.
03:31The last eruption in the area was seven million years ago.
03:36But we cannot say that we stay in Alsace, really. We are two months a year or three months a
03:41year here.
03:42And nine months on volcanic eruptions. We are like butterflies.
03:46We are butterflies from Alsace. And instead of going on flowers, we go in craters, in active craters, where it
03:53smells very, very strongly.
03:55We have correspondence all around the world.
03:59Scientific events. Hello, yes. Here is Maurice.
04:01If there is an eruption in the rain in Ireland, I will know the five minutes, five minutes after the
04:07eruption started.
04:08People near Fernandina Volcano felt earthquakes around 11 o'clock in the morning.
04:14And if something is going on, they will send us telex or telephone calls.
04:18And then we rush on the place. And we really have to rush.
04:21So they close the area again.
04:24The equipment is always ready. We have to take, of course, the asbestos suits to protect against heat, thermocouple, camera,
04:32movie camera.
04:35But we rush immediately. I get really very nervous when an eruption started. It's very, very exciting.
04:43There can be as many as three big eruptions in an average year, along with many smaller ones.
04:49They occur with little warning, sometimes lasting only a few hours.
04:56For the crafts, the challenge is timing, to reach the scene as quickly as possible, no matter how great the
05:02distance.
05:02In 1988 alone, they circled the globe eight times.
05:54We are not always on one specific problem in volcanology, with a microscope or with a seismograph.
06:05And in one year, I am a writer, a movie maker, a scientist and an adventurer and so on.
06:11And when you mix all this, it's fantastic.
06:25Very often, on volcanoes, we live like wild animals. That means you have to sleep on the ground, on very
06:34spiny soil. And it's not so comfortable.
06:42On a volcano, it's a mountain, so it's cold, and then it's too hot.
06:51What is nice, when you sleep on the ground, on an active volcano, you have just the vibrations of this
06:58big elephant.
07:00You are just sleeping on the back of this animal, and so you have the feeling that you are of
07:06something alive.
07:21On the eastern slope of Kilauea volcano, on the big island of Hawaii, there's a landscape that the crafts have
07:28never tired of photographing.
07:52I think that the volcanoes are very powerful in our mind, because it's a fire. We are attracted by fire.
08:00It's not a real fire. It's melted rock. But however, we are always attracted by fire.
08:23It's a sort of hell at the meantime. People are much more curious about hell than about paradise.
08:30So they want to see how hell is looking, to know if it's worth to go in paradise, maybe.
08:51The craft's idea of paradise. A lake of lava, seething at a temperature of more than 2,000 degrees.
09:00From its source, 37 miles underground, it rises up to fill a natural reservoir.
09:06A window, offering a glimpse of primeval forces at work.
09:15For us, being here at the edge of a lava lake is like being on a beach in Hawaii.
09:20This is our beach, in fact.
09:22Of course, there are some problems.
09:24You can be suffocated by gases, and you can fall in the lake, and that's it. Not so much more.
09:31But I find it much more dangerous to take maybe a chopper than to go near a lava lake.
09:36These gases are very acid, and it's very bad for the equipment, because they go inside all the equipment, and
09:45it's a wet gas.
09:49Equipment is ruined rapidly. What resists really very well on a volcano is man, you know, because it's alive.
09:57So if you are burned, the skin burns and so on, a new skin will come.
10:02But with an instrument, nothing. It will be ruined very rapidly.
10:07For the lungs, it is the same problem.
10:09No, for the lungs, the lungs of Katia.
10:11They shrink, and then it's forever.
10:12The lungs of Katia are burned, but mine not until now.
10:19The crafts are following the sometimes awkward footsteps of another generation.
10:25Then as now, the challenge was survival, and any kind of safety gear was better than none.
10:34It's the same.
10:35Recently, I was looking at old footage, old movies of volcanoes.
10:39And I find that already in the 1930s, and even before, you had volcanologists making movies, and really very interesting
10:46one.
10:47Of course, they were in black and white.
10:48So for the red of lava, it's not very wonderful.
10:53But you had some volcanologists making incredible things, going down craters, having dogs with gas masks.
11:04Those were real adventurers.
11:07But today, a volcanologist is a scientist, not so much an adventurer.
11:14Katia and Maurice have been inspired by those early days of volcanology.
11:19And their films reflect their fondness for the drama and adventure of a bygone era.
11:48The encounter of the magma burning, engendre the germs strange.
11:55My work is different from all the volcanologists, because when I see an eruption, I cannot only study the eruption.
12:04And sometimes it's so nice that I just drop my instruments, thermocouples and so on, and look.
12:10So I cannot have a stone here as a heart.
12:15I am like a missionary.
12:17That is to say, I want also to film volcanoes, to show it to other people.
12:27By popularizing volcanoes through lectures, films and illustrated books, the crafts can earn enough to finance as many as 12
12:34journeys a year.
12:37They return with hours of film shot by Maurice and hundreds of still photographs made by Katja.
12:45There are two possibilities.
12:47Normally I have to take the documentary, the scientific point of view to make the photo.
12:54That means you have to be very accurate and take it in one angle.
13:00But sometimes I like also to have the aesthetic one.
13:05So I prefer the aesthetic one.
13:12In the pictures, I try to find this mixture of colors or forms.
13:33Through their books, they're very well-known folks.
13:36They're legends in a way.
13:38Primarily because these folks, Maurice and Katja, have undoubtedly seen more active erupting volcanoes than any other human beings ever
13:47have in the history of the Earth.
13:52They do a lot of good science.
13:54They do write papers, but that's not a primary obligation.
13:56They can go out looking for the beauty of the volcanoes.
14:03They serve a tremendously useful function in terms of the scientific community.
14:08Because by being able to focus on little things, they come up with some film footage that's just mind-boggling.
14:14Things we ourselves sometimes don't see.
14:19Among the craft's most fruitful photographic ventures was a trip to Africa in 1988.
14:27In high excitement, they set out for Tanzania, bound for a unique volcano known as Lungai.
14:40It was one of the steepest climbs they'd ever attempted.
14:44But the spectacle that greeted them was worth the journey.
14:56To see Lungai from near is something that is outside the Earth.
15:00It seems to be a moon volcano or a Mars volcano.
15:08What is very peculiar for this volcano is that those lava are black.
15:15Because it's rich in certain minerals, the lava melts at only 500 degrees before it's had a chance to turn
15:22red hot.
15:24When you look at it, it looks like mud or like silver. It depends on the light.
15:30It's not bad, it's lava.
15:47The activity was incredible. We had a lava lake. We had lava flows very fluid, much more fluid than the
15:53most fluid lava I have seen.
15:58And we were able to take the samples with a spoon.
16:05And another surprise was 24 hours after emission, those black lava became white.
16:17And what was exciting also, that in the night it was red, like other lava.
16:31A different but equally unusual event occurred a few months later.
16:35And the crafts were there to film it.
16:38This time the scene was Anakranaka, a volcano on an Indonesian island.
16:42In February I was on a volcano.
16:46And in that place, it is in Indonesia, there was no volcano maybe for centuries.
16:52There was just a forest.
16:54You had a lot of old volcanic rocks around it.
16:58And then a new volcano was just building up.
17:03To build up this hill, 200 meters high, it needs only three weeks.
17:12It's very seldom that you can see the birth of the volcano.
17:16This happened once every five or six years.
17:20To add to the excitement, the volcano offered yet another spectacle.
17:26An avalanche of gases, rocks and ash.
17:31Known as Nuit Ardant, or glowing clouds,
17:35these are among the most mysterious of geological events.
17:51On a massive scale, they can be enormously destructive.
17:55But on this occasion, they were small enough for Katja and Maurice to study at close range.
18:01It don't happen often in volcanoes.
18:04And to go close of it, it's very difficult because it's too dangerous.
18:10When a baby volcano is just born, it's shaking a lot, you know, making a lot of earthquakes, a lot
18:16of landslides.
18:17It's very hot. It's really very impressive.
18:26Nuit Ardant are most exotic at night, when the clouds of ash become invisible, and the rocks within assume an
18:33almost magical glow.
18:38The sky is not toται.
18:41The sky is quite scary.
18:42The sky is on the sky.
18:42Of course, it's so large you're mistreated and there's no way if you're able to use it.
18:58It's very nice to you.
18:58The sky isries.
19:11We've had a bit of a competition as to who will get to volcanoes first.
19:16I mean, I know the crafts will see many more volcanoes than I ever will.
19:19But my cherished hope is that someday I'll get to an eruption before them or one that they won't get
19:25to.
19:26But in fact, so far, every eruption I've gotten to, the crafts have been there first.
19:32They beat me. It's getting frustrating.
19:35To their home in France, the crafts have brought reminders of their expeditions.
19:40And for almost every artifact, there's a story to tell.
19:44That's a terrible souvenir.
19:46This man died the 4th of April 82.
19:50He was killed by a blast and an ash flow coming from Chichon volcano in Mexico.
19:59He received the blast just in the face.
20:03That's why it's burned here.
20:07Those are the cassettes of a volcanologist of St. Helens.
20:14He was 9 kilometers from the volcano when the blast came on him and he was killed.
20:23And those are the messages of him, that they are melted.
20:26Impossible to know what are on those cassettes now.
20:32We call this an Indian hat.
20:36That is to say, when the blast of St. Helens was coming, this trunk exploded.
20:44And so it makes a very strange shape, typical of a very violent eruption.
20:50In fact, in my collection, I must have approximately 20 tons of samples.
20:57And only a small part of it is here.
20:59I have no space to put this.
21:01But I hope later to make a museum with it, with all those rocks and with the photography,
21:06films and prints, paintings and so on.
21:17With more than 500 active volcanoes in the world, there is no shortage of new places to explore.
21:23But there is a place to which the crafts return again and again.
21:27An island made entirely of black volcanic rock.
21:34We would like to retire in Hawaii, because in Hawaii, even if you are retired a volcanologist,
21:41you can go to see eruptions every year for sure, and in a wheelchair without any problem.
21:49Frequent eruptions, both small and large, have made Hawaii an ideal place for scientists to study how volcanoes work.
21:57Here, as elsewhere in the world, their studies are based on a theory known as plate tectonics.
22:04At the surface of the Earth, you have a dozen of plates.
22:08They are moving on the mantle.
22:10You have volcanoes at the edges of those plates.
22:14In fact, more than 90% of the world's volcanoes can be found along these boundaries in the Earth's crust.
22:23On land, the vast majority occur where one plate slides beneath another.
22:29Heated by the Earth's fiery interior, some of this rock melts and rises to the surface.
22:37Hawaii is a very special case.
22:39Instead of being along the edge of plates,
22:43volcanoes here are on a hot spot in the middle of the Pacific plate.
22:47In fact, it's a column of magma, a huge column of magma, coming up vertically under the plate.
22:53And the plate is moving on this hot spot.
22:56So it's making a chain of volcanoes, a chain of islands.
23:02In the past few years, the most active volcano on Hawaii has been Kilauea.
23:07Scientists know it as a shield volcano.
23:09The label comes from its resemblance to an ancient shield lying flat.
23:17Kilauea's craggy surface hides a network of natural tunnels,
23:21an underground system through which lava travels in enormous quantities.
23:27When the passage is back up, melted rock spills onto the volcano's slopes.
23:48Burning at a temperature of more than 2,000 degrees,
23:51the lava can deliver burns at a distance of four or five feet.
23:55The clip is hot. It's going to be the light.
23:58No, no, no, no, no, no.
23:59No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
24:04Quite aside from personal safety, it's a photographic challenge.
24:10We have a lot of problems with cameras near volcanoes.
24:13It's of course very hot.
24:15So sometimes you cannot touch the camera anymore.
24:19The acid is coming in the camera and the gases, so the film is processed in the camera before
24:26you go to the lab, so you can throw it away.
24:38I tried to take the sound on volcanoes, it means the sound of lava fountains and also
24:44the sound of the lava flows, and these are very small sounds, so I have to go very close.
24:53And there is a big problem of heat for the microphone, because it will melt if you go
24:59too close.
25:06When you are walking on lava flows, sometimes you can have troubles, because the first problem
25:11is the heat, and to feel the heat, the best is to have good shoes, and when they begin
25:18to melt, you know the temperature.
25:25Sometimes people ask us why you don't put the asbestos boots against the heat, but then
25:31you don't know where you are walking on.
25:38And the other problem, when we see blue gases at the surface coming out of the lava flow,
25:46or on a shield lava plate, then you know that lava is going very fast under it in lava tubes,
25:54lava tunnels.
25:58And you have to be very careful, because it can collapse, and you just take a hot bath
26:04and be cooked in the flow.
26:08Another place that is prone to hazardous collapses is the island's eastern coastline,
26:13where streams of lava pour into the ocean.
26:18Anybody standing on the shore when it gives way is certain to be killed, but in this case,
26:23there is a relatively safe alternative.
26:44One of the best sites concerning eruptions is when a lava flow is going in the sea, because
26:51you have the struggle, the fight between fire and water.
26:55And this is very fascinating.
27:24And this is very fascinating.
27:26And this is very fascinating.
27:26Beneath these curtains of steam, the island is expanding slowly, stretching out towards
27:32the east, as molten rock accumulates along the shore.
27:43It's like watching the creation of the earth itself.
28:08I fell in love with volcanoes when I was seven years old.
28:12In fact, my parents, my father, showed me an eruption, Stromboli, in activity.
28:18And I have seen this eruption from very near.
28:20So I fell in love first with volcanoes.
28:23And Katja fell in love with volcanoes when she was 14 years old, on the same volcano, Stromboli,
28:29with her parents.
28:30No, no.
28:31I fell in love without seeing active volcanoes.
28:35I have seen the films and photos and was interested in geology and astronomy.
28:41And so I decided to be volcanologist.
28:44When they met at university, it was a natural partnership.
28:48Two students driven by a single aspiration.
28:53Katja was making studies in geochemistry and I was in geology.
28:58And she was completely crazy about volcanoes because before she was knowing about me.
29:04And I was crazy about volcanoes.
29:05And that's why we married, in fact, mainly.
29:11With little money for travel, they concentrated their research in southern Italy,
29:15where volcanoes have erupted frequently for centuries.
29:21When Katja and me started to go on volcanoes, the main problem was not the risk of eruptions,
29:27but it was to survive and to find enough money to eat.
29:31Because to eat stone is quite difficult.
29:33We tried it maybe, but it's impossible.
29:38And I remember that we don't have so much clothes at this time.
29:42But those gases are so acid that our clothes were completely burned and with a lot of holes in it.
29:53But we are only focusing on the volcano.
30:01While in southern Italy, Katja and Maurice set sail for Stromboli,
30:06one of the region's most active volcanoes.
30:09They were determined to go to the very brink of the inferno.
30:13An experience that neither one would soon forget.
30:17I was mainly impressed by the noise.
30:20When you climb a mountain, you hear the noise and it's becoming stronger and stronger.
30:28And then you may panic in some way and you have to climb in ashes.
30:32So it's very difficult because you make two steps forward and one backward.
30:39And also the smell, the sulfur, you know.
30:42You are suffocated in gases.
30:45And then when you arrive at the top, you see in the crater,
30:49because the summit is higher than the vents.
30:52So you can look in an active crater.
31:08And this was really a discovery for me, to see a mountain and at the top to have fire.
31:14To have explosion every minute was fantastic.
31:29The crafts were hooked.
31:31But the rest of the world's volcanoes were still beyond their reach.
31:37Unfortunately, the funding was not enough for looking at active volcanoes.
31:44So, being scientists at the beginning, we became, at the meantime, movie maker and photographer.
31:49Only of volcanoes.
31:52So that's by this way that we obtain enough money to go everywhere around the world and to look at
31:57eruptions.
32:16It was an unusual approach to volcanology, but it worked.
32:21Katia and Maurice transformed their passion for volcanoes into an entire way of life.
32:36Unaffiliated with a university or laboratory, they carved their own path across Europe and the rest of the world.
32:53To be continued...
33:09By the middle 1970s, they had been on every continent except Antarctica.
33:14It was an adventurous time, but there were occasional reminders of the toll volcanoes
33:20can exact on man.
33:26One such moment came in 1973, when Maurice and Katja hurried to Heimei, Iceland's most
33:32important fishing port.
33:35The curtain was about to rise on one of the century's great natural drums.
33:41Imagine that in your backyard, you have a volcano growing.
33:54This was the real story of Heimei.
33:59Those people had a very nice city with a view on the sea, and then suddenly, at night,
34:05a volcano started to erupt just in their backyard.
34:09And this volcano was growing, growing, growing, growing.
34:19When we arrived there, the noise was so strong that it was impossible to talk to each other.
34:27And we were really attracted by this fire immediately.
34:34To see this fire thrown very high into the air was really fantastic.
34:54And everything was empty, but all the lamps were on in the houses.
35:01So it was like a sort of stage in a theater, everything was here for making a show, but the
35:08actors
35:08were not there.
35:10The actor was the volcano, and he was behind the houses.
35:31Icelandic people are not afraid by volcanoes.
35:35So what they decided to do is to fight against the volcano to save their houses.
35:48Heimei's entire population had been evacuated at the first sign of trouble, but 150 houses
35:54were lost within a few days.
35:59Many of the homes that didn't burn were buried in tons of ash and volcanic debris.
36:06But most dangerous of all to this community of fishermen was the threat to the harbor, whose
36:13entrance was being narrowed a little more each day.
36:18Heimei's people, who had always drawn their strength from the Atlantic, turned to the ocean
36:22in this time of crisis.
36:25Working frantically, volunteers began assembling 19 miles of pipe.
36:30Using millions of gallons of water, they cooled the flows until their ominous advance could
36:36be diverted.
36:41Soon the Icelanders were known around the world for their unique achievement.
36:47Still, Heimei was a sharp reminder that volcanoes overshadow towns and villages around the
36:52world.
36:57Among the places where potentially explosive mountains are abundant is the island nation
37:02of Indonesia.
37:05Not surprisingly, the crafts have spent a lot of time there.
37:08We stayed there for the first time in 1971.
37:11We stayed one year.
37:12It was a big expedition.
37:14And we went on Java, Sumatra, Bali and other islands, going from one volcano to the other.
37:21Every step of the way, the expedition walked on treacherous ground.
37:25Gases building up in magma, deep within the earth, might break free at any time, causing violent
37:32eruptions.
37:40Fascinated by this demonstration of the power of the earth, the crafts and their colleagues
37:45went as close as they dared.
37:48Sometimes they were just an arm's length from the blast.
38:08It was on this trip to Indonesia that the crafts engaged in what would be regarded as their
38:14most notorious adventure.
38:19On Java, they came upon a strange volcanic lake.
38:25Here gases bubbling from the earth below transformed the water into a corrosive brew.
38:34Its main ingredient, sulfuric acid.
38:39On Kawahidgen, we were six in the team, three chemists and three geologists.
38:47And the three geologists were just crazy.
38:49That means more is too.
38:51Because chemists don't want to go on a sulfuric acid lake.
38:57And they were doing this to take a boat and to go on this lake.
39:01It's more acid than in the battery of your carb.
39:08What can happen if you fall in an acid lake?
39:11You are just dissolved.
39:13It's a problem of maybe one hour.
39:19But you know, it's always risky on a volcano.
39:21You know this before going there.
39:29So we went on the lake and we took samples of this acid at different depths.
39:35And we took also the temperature.
39:41The cable for taking samples was in iron.
39:44So we put the sampling bottle in the lake of acid and after five or ten minutes, the cable was
39:52broken.
39:54But our hands also were, all the skin went away.
40:01And once we were in the middle of the lake, wind came and we had a big problem to go
40:07ashore again.
40:19When the story of Kawaii-jen filtered back to the scientific world, the crafts were criticized for taking an unnecessary
40:26risk.
40:28In fact, they would confront such criticism more than once in their career.
40:35The other volcanologists, they called us fast-moving volcanologists or volcano devils or they called us crazy volcanologists or face
40:44-to-death volcanologists recently.
40:47I don't consider that we are face-to-death people and that we are crazy volcanologists.
40:52We are just different and that's it.
40:55We all go into these situations with the realization that something unexpected can happen.
40:59A crater wall can collapse. A phreatic eruption can happen.
41:02You can't avoid those kinds of things.
41:05It would be safer to stay home in bed than go out and be Maurice and Katya Craft filming volcanoes.
41:10But it wouldn't be very interesting staying home in bed. Potentially, at least.
41:15No, they're not foolhardy. They take their chances.
41:18But you take your chances and you reap your rewards.
41:21And they're reaping lots of rewards for all of us.
41:35When volcanologists confront the power of the earth, they do so voluntarily.
41:40That is not the case for those who live near dangerous volcanoes.
41:46I am very concerned, however, even if I am a crazy volcanologist, I am very concerned by the volcano as
41:54a killer.
41:56Volcanoes, they kill sometimes.
41:58And I am really convinced that they kill because of lack of information of the population
42:04and because we are not convincing enough for the authorities.
42:10The most dangerous and deadly mountains are those like El Chichon, a Mexican volcano that erupted suddenly in 1982.
42:20Ash clouds reached the upper atmosphere, threatening to lower temperatures around the world.
42:26At Chichon, however, the volcano took its toll in human lives.
42:34This was one of the most terrible things we have seen.
42:39Because you had a lot of villages around the volcano and they were all destroyed.
42:47And people were so poor in these places that you just see that they have nothing or not far from
42:54nothing.
42:55And the volcano takes as much as it can.
43:01I really love volcanoes when they are alone in the nature.
43:06But when you have these villages around, and very often in poor countries, I am not far from crying because
43:13then I am with the people and no more with the volcano.
43:22In Chichon, the number of dead people officially was 187.
43:28But we think that maybe there were 3,000 people killed at this eruption.
43:36Tragic though it was, Chichon was overshadowed three years later by an infinitely worse disaster.
43:42It occurred at Nevado del Ruiz, an isolated mountain in Colombia.
43:47But the death toll horrified the scientists who rushed there.
43:53For many, many years, this volcano was not in eruption.
43:57So when the eruption started, a lot of volcanologists, foreign volcanologists mainly, came there.
44:03And they said to the authorities, this volcano may erupt very violently, very soon.
44:09But unfortunately, authorities don't trust volcanologists.
44:15And the volcano was very far from Armero, 47 kilometers.
44:20So do you imagine that the mudflow will come down here?
44:2422,000 people died in mud.
44:32It was awful because if those people had just walked 200 meters on the small hill nearby, there have been
44:42no victim at all.
44:44And when you see this and when you imagine that it was possible to avoid this, if this city had
44:52been evacuated, it's really awful for volcanologists.
45:00The lesson for me concerning rules is even if you are an excellent volcanologist, you have also to be excellent
45:10in communications to explain what is going on.
45:14If you don't try to convince, you are not a good volcanologist.
45:20But you have some countries, for instance, Indonesia, where authorities, they listen when volcanologists say it's time to go.
45:29And a recent example is Makyan in Malukus.
45:35Suddenly it starts erupting, but not violently. First, only some fumaroles, some smoke, some white vapor.
45:42And then volcanologists decided to evacuate the whole island.
45:47And the authorities agreed with that, and 18,000 people were evacuated.
45:56And five days after, the big eruption started, and a big ash column went at 15 kilometers high.
46:04And 10 villages were overwhelmed by an enormous burden of ashes.
46:13And all those villages had been completely destroyed. And there was not a single victim, only animals that were killed.
46:24The island was empty of people. But they had no time to take away the animals.
46:33And many animals were trapped in the mud.
46:43And so we were studying the volcano, and also trying to take out all these animals from the mud.
46:50And we made a big social work on this island.
47:08When communities are in danger, it's tempting to get personally involved.
47:13But in many places, guidance or assistance from a foreign volcanologist comes across as outside interference.
47:22The problem with local officials is that very often they don't trust us.
47:27They don't trust volcanologists.
47:29If we say this area is very dangerous, you have to evacuate, they say, oh, yes, of course.
47:34And they don't believe what we say.
47:36So we think now that instead of giving written reports that they don't understand, it's much better to make video
47:45of volcanic hazard.
47:47With UNESCO and scientific organizations from several countries, the Crafts are working on a film designed to offer guidance in
47:55times of grave danger.
47:57Their photography, which started merely as a way to finance expeditions, has become a tool for sharing knowledge and perhaps
48:05for saving lives.
48:16More than 500 million people live near active volcanoes.
48:21And in many cultures, there are rituals designed to keep the lava safely underground.
48:28In Hawaii, for example, gifts are offered up to Pele, the fire goddess, who is said to live in Kilauea
48:34Crater.
48:35It's an impulse that comes easily to many, even in this age of scientific skepticism.
48:43The volcanoes are so powerful.
48:46You must believe something big like a god to explain it, because it's so powerful.
48:54I say I am throwing flowers and sometimes bottles of gin in the crater for Pele, for the goddess.
49:00And I find even it can be useful.
49:02And even sometimes when I am filming and when I get very good results, then Pele has to take something
49:11from me.
49:12Superstitious or not, the Crafts have had their share of sheer good luck.
49:18Their capacity for being in the right place at the right time is almost legendary.
49:24Maurice had come to Hawaii just because he simply likes to come to Hawaii.
49:28The volcanoes weren't erupting, but who cares, he likes Hawaii.
49:31He's bought a piece of land in Hawaii.
49:34Maurice comes to Hawaii. He's there on his birthday, the 25th of March.
49:37On the 25th of March, guess what he gets for a birthday present?
49:42Paley gives him an eruption.
49:44A lot of love starts an incredible three-week eruption.
50:06A volcanic eruption is the most wonderful site that the Earth can offer you, I am convinced
50:12of that.
50:32Volcanoes are making a show each time you go there.
50:35It's never the same show, and it's never the show you're waiting for.
50:38So they make the show they want, and you can just take part of the show by filming it.
50:48It's a show of nature, of the Earth, and it's always a wonderful show, the best you can
50:54imagine.
51:09When we are on volcanoes and they are in eruption, we are just nothing, and I find this very
51:15good.
51:17You have this big mountain exploding, all these powerful things going on, and you
51:23are just a small, small animal.
51:28And this is fantastic.
51:33Normal mountains are really dead mountains compared to volcanoes.
51:38We fell in love with the mountains alive.
51:43long
52:10long
52:10long
52:11long
52:11long
52:11long
52:17Oh
52:18Oh
52:41Olé, olé, olé
53:00Yes, girls
53:06Me mind on fire
53:08Me soul and fire
53:10Feelin' hot, hot, hot
53:14But the people
53:16All around me
53:17Feelin' hot, hot, hot
53:47We hope you have enjoyed this presentation from the National Geographic Video Library
53:59Driven by thirst and hunger
54:01Africa's striped horses run a treacherous gauntlet
54:05For 300 miles
54:07Zebras race through a spectacular but sinister landscape
54:12Caught in an ancient dance of struggle and survival
54:19Witness the wonder of creation
54:23The battle for dominance
54:28And the grassland's oldest and newest dangers
54:33National Geographic takes you on an extraordinary journey
54:36With zebra patterns in the grass
54:46Between 1968 and 1972
54:4924 men left the Earth
54:51And journeyed to the Moon
54:52This is the film they brought back
54:55And these are their words
54:58Standby for touchdown
54:59This is gonna be spectacular
55:04I felt at home there
55:06Even though the Earth was a long ways away
55:09Boy, look at the size of that rock
55:12Good deal, boy
55:14There is new knowledge to be gained
55:17And new rights to be won
55:19For the progress of all mankind
55:21Join National Geographic
55:23For a wondrous journey into the unknown
55:26Man must explore
55:28For all mankind
55:33For all mankind
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