Catherine Joséphine "Katia" Krafft and her husband, Maurice Paul Krafft were French volcanologists and filmmakers who died in a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen, Nagasaki, Japan, on 3 June 1991. The Kraffts became well known as pioneers in the filming, photographing, and recording of volcanoes, often coming within feet of lava flows. Their obituary appeared in the Bulletin of Volcanology. 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.
Katia and Maurice Krafft
Volcanology is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geological, geophysical and geochemical phenomena (volcanism). The term volcanology is derived from the Latin word vulcan. Vulcan was the ancient Roman god of fire.
A volcanologist sampling lava using a rock hammer and a bucket of water
Eruption of Stromboli (Isole Eolie/Italia), ca. 100m (300ft) vertically. Exposure of several seconds. The dashed trajectories are the result of lava pieces with a bright hot side and a cool dark side rotating in mid-air.
Volcanologist examining tephra horizons in south-central Iceland.
Eruption of Vesuvius in 1822. The eruption of CE 79 would have appeared very similar.