Accompany the esteemed French volcanologist Haroun Tazieff on an exhilarating expedition to two of the globe's most active volcanoes: Mt. Etna in Sicily and Nyiragongo in Zaire. This enthralling documentary captures Tazieff's personal encounters during eruption events, offering viewers an unparalleled viewpoint on volcanic phenomena. Delve into the scientific principles underlying eruptions, the geological importance of these magnificent mountains, and the repercussions of volcanic activity on the adjacent ecosystems and communities. This film is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in geology, volcanology, or the extraordinary marvels of our planet.
In this captivating investigation, Haroun Tazieff, a prominent French volcanologist, invites you to embark on an exciting journey to Mt. Etna in Sicily and Nyiragongo in Zaire during their active eruption stages. Witness the sheer force of nature as Tazieff imparts his knowledge and observations from the field. Explore the intricacies of volcanic eruptions, the historical context of these renowned volcanoes, and the obstacles encountered by scientists in their research. This documentary provides a comprehensive examination of the dynamic processes that shape our Earth, making it an ideal resource for science and nature enthusiasts.
In this captivating investigation, Haroun Tazieff, a prominent French volcanologist, invites you to embark on an exciting journey to Mt. Etna in Sicily and Nyiragongo in Zaire during their active eruption stages. Witness the sheer force of nature as Tazieff imparts his knowledge and observations from the field. Explore the intricacies of volcanic eruptions, the historical context of these renowned volcanoes, and the obstacles encountered by scientists in their research. This documentary provides a comprehensive examination of the dynamic processes that shape our Earth, making it an ideal resource for science and nature enthusiasts.
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00:00The apocalyptic vision of fire bursting from the earth haunts man with the image of all in nature that is beyond his control.
00:12In the face of destruction, man turns to his God.
00:32His faith and the will to believe are all he has against the fear and despair
00:38that have always been part of his precarious place on the planet.
00:47History is filled with the struggles of the human spirit to endure against forces in nature we can neither understand nor control.
00:55Man remains helpless when facing the awesome powers of the violent earth.
01:08This pastitat livres him in this country.
01:13He's dead to heaven today's freedom.
01:15Manupistically with no other world experiences,
01:18the Zhedo and the cons danachγγ tale.
01:23He has saved the potential staff of the world.
01:27ΒΆΒΆ
01:57Before man, before any living thing, the surface of an infant planet evolved in a process of violence that is still going on.
02:10The volcano gives man a fiery image of a time in the Earth's development, some four billion years ago.
02:27ΒΆΒΆ
02:35Magma, the seething mixture of molten rock and gases that breaks through faults in the Earth's crust as volcanoes,
02:42forms the surface of the planet we brazenly call our own.
02:57ΒΆΒΆ
03:05The cooling volcanic landscape, a world of great desolation, provides a wondrous paradox.
03:11It is the ravaged corpse on which life appears.
03:15With life comes man.
03:16ΒΆΒΆ
03:23Harun Taziaf is a 58-year-old geologist who has challenged the forces of nature for a quarter of a century.
03:31At the head of a team of French and Swiss scientist mountaineers,
03:35he explores the barren slopes and poisonous gases
03:38that have shrouded volcanoes and legends since the beginnings of man.
03:42ΒΆΒΆ
03:43At the top of the world, he seeks out the power that begins in the heart of the Earth.
03:48ΒΆΒΆ
03:49Harun Taziaf's laboratory is the crater lip of an active volcano.
04:13Perched on the edge of eternity, he collects and measures the deadly swirling gases
04:18in search of an answer to the mystery of volcanic activity.
04:22In his personal struggle with the Earth's power,
04:25he has led the little-known science of volcanology
04:27out of the laboratory to the volcano itself.
04:30Now we have an verdadero-alto-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
05:00Throughout Europe, they are known as Taziev's gang.
05:05The unorthodox scientific team includes
05:08volcanologists, chemists, nuclear physicists,
05:12and alpine mountain climbers.
05:15They share a kind of athlete's devotion to a winning coach,
05:19a total commitment to science and nature,
05:22and an unabashed love of adventure.
05:30Taziev has added the mountaineer's daring to the scientist's curiosity.
05:44He and members of his team have climbed volcanic peaks
05:47from Iceland to Africa, from the Andes to Indonesia.
06:00From the crater of an active volcano to a rugby field in Paris
06:15is not really much of a jump for Taziev and his personal brand of science and sport.
06:20I became the strange type of volcanologist I am.
06:27From the very start, I tackled the volcano,
06:30not only from a scientific point of view,
06:35but at the same time from a battling point of view,
06:39from a sporting point of view.
06:41To me, from the very first time, the volcanic eruption was a challenge,
06:47something to win, you see.
06:50And as I am an old mountaineer, ancient boxer,
06:59and still rugby player,
07:01as soon as a challenge arises,
07:04I am like a bull, ready to fight it.
07:07Mount Etna, Sicily, April 5th, 1971.
07:26The largest active volcano in Europe provides Taziev and his team
07:30with the perfect laboratory, a volcano in full eruption.
07:44On the trembling mountain already scarred with craters of hundreds of past eruptions,
07:48new fissures burst open.
08:00Instruments for collecting and measuring the volcanic gases
08:03must be carried by volcanologists to the source of the eruption
08:07through a red-hot rain of flying lava.
08:10Like knights in some mythical joust, the volcanologists approach the dragon
08:19and poke their lances into its flaming mouth.
08:22The temperature at the vent is almost 2,000 degrees.
08:25If they are struck by a chunk of burning lava,
08:39it could tear through the helmet and the man inside.
08:42Again and again, Taziev and his scientists pit their strength against the power of the volcano.
09:00The jets of gas burst out of the vent at a velocity of 500 feet per second.
09:07...
09:12...
09:17...
09:22...
09:24In the deadly swirling gases above the cauldron of molten rock,
09:53a lone man defies the Earth's mightiest force.
09:57On a mountaintop in Sicily, reality takes on the unearthly image of science fiction.
10:23For 69 days, Mount Etna roars out her fury, annihilating everything that stands before it.
10:37The relentless lava pours down the slopes, as it has since Etna's first recorded eruption, more than 2,000 years ago.
10:50The tiny, wine-growing village of Fornazzo lies helpless in its path.
10:55THE END
11:25For five years, Mount Etna rumbled a warning to the people of Fornazzo.
11:45They would not leave their village.
11:48They remain in the vineyards even now.
11:51It is their land.
11:52The constant threat of eruption is the price they pay for the most fertile soil in Sicily, Etna's volcanic slopes.
12:00The Devil's Seλ€οΏ½inin'
12:03It's the end.
12:05These four little images are the same, as it has sinceγ³γΰ€²You.
12:08The Devil's Seunders, Mount Winter Π½Π΅ΠΌΠ½ΠΎΠΆΠΊΠΎ in Sicily,γγ¨ as a libre dream.
12:12The devil never gave you the same.
12:13The devil never gave you the same.
12:15It was immediately afterbury's blood, Mr. Fraser's Π²Π°ΠΌ of exclusion.
12:18The devil never gave you the same.
12:21The devil never gave you the same, or the man.
12:23We're not alone.
12:23The devil never gave you the same.
12:25The devil never gave you the same.
12:25The devil never gave you the same approval to the scientist.
12:26They don't have you to ask for the two reasons?
12:27I'm gonna come to it in the boiled and never daqui.
12:27The lava flows through the outlying vineyards to the town of Fornazzo itself.
12:38The people grudgingly accept their fate.
13:04To live on the slopes of Mount Etna is to know how powerless man really is against the unknown forces locked deep in the earth that will someday, any day, rise up to destroy him.
13:18Yet there are those who remain. They will stay on their land until the last possible moment.
13:25Theirs is the human spirit that stands against the forces of destruction and clings to life.
13:34That spirit is Taziev's message in the lecture halls of Europe.
13:39We are man, he tells us. We can't wait for the powers of nature to wash us away.
13:44We must meet them head on, on their own terms, and we must win.
13:49Always, it is the athletic challenge. He tells the students, science is my life, the sport of it, my passion.
13:59For years, Taziev was considered a rebel scientist, an adventurer. Today, he is the director of France's National Center for Scientific Research.
14:12His challenge to nature is accepted by young people all over the world.
14:19Last call for flight 23, boarding at gate 9, flight 411.
14:25At New York's John F. Kennedy Airport in the summer of 1972, a group of American students prepare to join Taziev
14:36on an expedition through the rainforest of Central Africa to an active volcano called Miragongo.
14:42I don't know what to expect. I'm just, I'm just kind of tagging along.
14:45Did you know that we're going to live inside the volcano?
14:48Yeah, Bob told me that.
14:49You heard that? You heard that? Yeah.
14:51The students are scholarship winners from all over the United States, chosen by the Explorers Club and the U.S. Office of Education.
15:12With them is a group of interested amateurs whose dream is field research.
15:18They were selected not only for their interest in the Earth sciences, but also for their athletic ability and personality.
15:26Taziev's Miragongo expedition will test them beyond the limits of scientific inquiry.
15:33Only one small part of Africa.
15:52After a 22 hour flight, the students arrive in the Republic of Zaire, once the Belgian Congo.
16:01They are met by Robert Citron, head of Educational Expeditions International, a Massachusetts-based organization that sponsors scientific field expeditions for students and amateurs.
16:20A bewildering blur of sights and sounds flies past the students as the expedition speeds towards its destination.
16:27They have only a few days for sightseeing on their way across Zaire's wide savannas, before they will meet Taziev and the rest of the expedition.
16:39It is the only chance the students will have to see the Africa which has haunted the imagination of Western man.
16:46For a few days they are tourists in the exotic panorama where tribal life and wild animals exist together in a landscape of dreamlike contradictions.
17:05The students' safari is stopped at a river in the foothills of the volcanic Virunga mountain range.
17:18From here the Americans are able to see for the first time the reason they have come 6,000 miles from home.
17:33Ahead of them rising out of the jungle mists is Miragongo.
17:58In the tribal village of Kabati, at the foot of Miragongo, men from the surrounding area have come to work as bearers for one dollar a day.
18:07A hundred and fifty are chosen.
18:21Harun Taziev is assembling the largest group ever to climb Miragongo.
18:25The bearers will carry the expedition's three tons of supplies and scientific gear in packs of 40 pounds each on their backs or in more traditional African fashion.
18:40Besides the Americans there is an international brigade of scientists and a dozen skilled mountain climbers brought along by Taziev as a safety precaution.
18:48For the 58 year old Taziev, the expedition may be the last round in the continuing battle he's fought with the mountain since 1947.
19:04He was on Miragongo then as a geologist and the experience thrust his career and his life in a new direction.
19:10He was on the plane down the crater but I was not interested.
19:12Because I didn't know it was active and I was not involved.
19:16Then in 48 I came back as a volcanologist.
19:20For the first few miles the students managed to keep up with Taziev.
19:23The twisting elephant trails that zigzag up the 11,400 foot mountain become an exhausting classroom for the old mountaineer's impromptu lectures on volcanology.
19:26For the first few miles the students managed to keep up with Taziev.
19:39The twisting elephant trails that zigzag up the 11,400 foot mountain become an exhausting classroom for the old mountaineer's impromptu lectures on volcanology.
19:49Deeper in the rain forest the walk becomes a climb and the expedition breaks into many small groups each keeping its own pace.
20:03The air is noticeably thinner and climbing is difficult.
20:07Bravo.
20:12How was it?
20:21Marvelous.
20:22Except we're famished.
20:24Here you go.
20:27Hey, that's pretty good.
20:33Here, got one.
20:36I got a cramp in my lane.
20:38Coffee to your milk.
20:40How about some soup?
20:42More soup?
20:43I think we could have gone faster.
20:45It was just more fun this way.
20:47Come on, the last one up.
20:49Come on, come on.
20:51Hurry up.
20:52If you promise to put it at the front.
21:02The first day ends two-thirds the way up the mountain, 9,000 feet above sea level.
21:09From here, they can see the bleak, windswept summit of Miragongo.
21:19After a two-day climb through sweltering rain forest, a group of American students reaches the near-freezing summit of Miragongo.
21:38They have come 6,000 miles for the experience.
21:41Oh, my God.
21:42Look at that.
21:43Jesus.
21:44Look at that.
21:45Took you long enough to get here.
21:46Look at that.
21:47Took you so long.
21:48You can't picture something.
21:49Oh, yeah.
21:50It was flinging some hot rocks up a little while ago.
21:53What?
21:54Jesus.
21:55You can't see that.
21:56You can't see that.
21:57That's what we're gonna be standing on in the sky.
21:58We're gonna be standing on the sky.
21:59That's where that guy, that other guy was photographed from, right?
22:01That's where we're going to be standing on.
22:17That's where that guy, that other guy was photographed from, right?
22:22Look, look, look at it.
22:24Look at it.
22:25Look at it.
22:26Look at it.
22:27Look at it.
22:28It's going through the street.
22:29Look.
22:30Can you see it right there?
22:31Wow.
22:32Yes.
22:33Six hundred and fifty feet below is near Ogongo's active lake of Molten Marble.
22:43Sudden eruptions causing the lake to rise and fall spasmodically will make any attempt
22:48to reach it extremely dangerous, if not impossible.
22:51And it overflows.
22:52You'll see it when you'll be down, and then it receded, and a small collapse of
22:58of the whole fulgur.
22:59Even the whole fulgur.
23:00Even the whole fulgur.
23:01It's a lot of fattening.
23:02Yes.
23:03You've got to stay far.
23:04I don't believe it.
23:05It looks like it's rising, doesn't it?
23:09A night will pass on the rim before the students are allowed to descend into a near Ogongo.
23:26The mountaineers have already roped off a trail into the volcano and set up a scientific
23:40advance camp below.
23:41Our strongest mountaineer after Michel has been violently struck by a fallen stone.
23:47He's now with a hurt shoulder, yes, and out of use.
23:53And he got it on the shoulder, fortunately, because it was a very big stone.
23:58And on the head, even with a helmet, it could be really a big danger.
24:04Tasiyev is concerned for the safety of the students.
24:07Two of his mountaineers have been struck by falling stones.
24:10A few weeks earlier, an experienced African climber fell to his death.
24:15For their descent, the students will be roped to mountaineers, all Alpine veterans.
24:21Even if you fall, no problem, you are safe.
24:25The main thing is to stand as erect as possible and as far as possible from the wall and relax.
24:42Tasiyev has demanded only one thing from the students he's chosen to make the climb.
24:46Each must carry his own supplies along the trail of loose rock down the 650-foot, almost vertical wall.
24:55The most recommended and small.
24:58The highest periphery of living in the world the μλ‘μ΄ space.
24:59And not all of a sudden, they are so used to be lost.
25:01Since the master is being rendered, the countries in the world the first time.
25:04The last invisible spot is on the road.
25:06He is making a picture of theulated Mountaineer.
25:10In the world the first place is to be found in the world's mountains.
25:12The main thing is to be found in the world's mountains of the mountains.
25:16The most enjoyable place is to be found in the mountains of the mountains.
25:17To be found in the mountains of the mountains in the mountains.
25:20The mostwide star is to be found in the mountains of the mountains.
29:01Two of the students have convinced Taziev to let them help with the gas collecting experiment.
29:06By measuring changes in the gases over long periods of time, volcanologists believe they
29:18might be able to predict volcanic activity.
29:20So far, the scientists have considered the American teenagers tourists.
29:26So far, the scientists have considered the American teenagers tourists.
29:40When the students prove they can withstand the noxious fumes, they win the respect of the professionals.
29:47They win the respect of the professionals.
29:49They win the respect of the professionals.
29:54The volcanologists who intend to investigate the eruptive phenomenon itself should be tough.
30:05They should also be excellent comrades, as we say in French, the bons camarades.
30:11They should help each other.
30:13They should help each other.
30:14It's a team.
30:15It's a teamwork.
30:16The teamwork like for a football team, you see.
30:19When we see an eruptive volcano and our mind asks, what is this phenomenon?
30:26How does it work?
30:27The answer lies in the very far itself.
30:45This is absolutely unique.
30:47You see, the lace shows the shape of the huge exploding gas bubble.
30:57You see the exploding gas bubble materialized by these lava lasers.
31:04All the topography, all the morphology, all the activity was practically identical.
31:11No changes, almost no changes, but minor ones.
31:14And now, big changes are occurring.
31:16The activity of the lava lake has increased tremendously.
31:45Since Taziev's arrival.
31:47Many times each day, without warning, the molten lava rises hundreds of feet and fills the fire pit.
31:53The fire pit.
31:54The fire pit.
31:55The fire pit.
31:57The fire pit.
31:58The fire pit.
31:59The fire pit...
32:08The fire pit.
32:10But then, watch the floors.
32:12Clinging to a tiny spot on the edge of the inferno, they face the awesome power of Miragongo.
32:30Taziev and his team of volcanologists are battered by a steady rain of burning lava pellets.
32:36Lifelines tied around their wastes are anchored in the ground
32:39to keep them from being sucked into the vortex of the fire pit.
32:44For more than two hours, Taziev and his men risked their lives for a few precious ounces of gas.
33:09The End
33:13THE END
33:43Almost two weeks of frustration have passed since the expedition camped on the cold gray floor
33:56of Miragongo. Many of the scientists have left in disappointment.
34:13All that remains of the expedition are a few members of Taziev's gang, his trusted mountaineers,
34:25and the four students he selected to stay.
34:35In 1948, Taziev was the first man ever to descend into Miragongo, a climb experts considered impossible.
34:42Only once in 1959 was he able to reach the lava lake itself. He is determined to try again.
34:54Miragongo is practically on the equator, yet temperatures in the caldera are always near freezing.
35:13It is the bone chilling reality of camping more than 11,000 feet above sea level.
35:20The whole actual experience is the best thing one can give to young people.
35:32I have now not only seen a rather crazy volcano and crazy volcanologist, but I have seen also,
35:42and this is most important I think, much more important for them, psychological and human problems
35:48of existing together on the same places. We are rather abnormal volcanologists because we choose more or less deliberately
36:01the difficult path instead of the easy path. When we planned this expedition, the lava lake was much higher,
36:11the level was much higher, and was of a difficult access, but was accessible.
36:20Now the lava lake would be accessible if these sudden overflows did not occur.
36:31The turbulence of the lava lake, its wild rising and falling, has changed the crater of Miragongo.
36:46Canvas grid. Well, the scale is one for 2,000.
36:52Tarseyev's only map is from the 1959 expedition. He wants accurate measurements of the present crater,
36:59and the students volunteer for the task.
37:02Then you could go to the X, uh, X dike. You know the X dike?
37:07Yeah, yeah. It's more like X dike.
37:13Okay, Peter, come on up.
37:16Yeah.
37:21Making do with the only equipment available, the students improvise with a camera rangefinder
37:26and a mountaineer's rope to measure the crater.
37:39The brittle surface is lava, the residue of an eruption that occurred a few months earlier,
37:44when the lake overflowed and covered the floor of the volcano.
37:47Each crunching footstep is a warning that the entire caldera could be filled again with boiling lava.
37:54You would definitely move up and feito this pop off.
38:05Yes, please get to the ike.
38:07Oh, oh.
38:10Tozyev's wife, France, has made the long hike to the summit and the treacherous climb
38:31into the volcano to be with her husband.
38:38He wants to be with him on Miragongo when he attempts to descend into the fire pit.
38:44The chances of success seem to lessen with each passing hour.
39:08The low rumbling which is always heard in the caldera becomes a roar.
39:23This night on Miragongo is different.
39:26The sky burns with an eerie brilliance.
39:29It draws the few remaining members of the expedition to the lake of molten lava.
39:36Miragongo will show man just how small he really is.
39:43The sky burns with an eerie brilliance.
39:53The sky burns with an eerie brilliance.
39:58THE END
40:28THE END
40:5814 days have passed.
41:15The mountaineers have tried twice without success
41:18to descend into the fire pit.
41:20They were stopped by fumes from two new vents
41:22which have burst open.
41:32Taziev is determined to make
41:34at least one attempt himself.
41:36Against the advice of his own mountaineers
41:38and the other scientists,
41:40Taziev will risk the descent into the fire pit.
41:42He will attempt to reach the lava lake.
41:45The fire pit is thick with deadly gases
42:09and covered with the still hot lava
42:11of the previous night's eruption.
42:12Taziev hopes at least to collect some samples
42:15of Naragongo's newest lava,
42:17literally just a few hours old.
42:20When he goes over the lip of the crater,
42:22he will not be able to be seen
42:23by the men handling his lifeline.
42:25He will be alone against the volcano.
42:29He has always said,
42:30the mountain is the master.
42:32The volcano dictates the terms
42:33and most often wins.
44:19Even though Taziyev may be hurt, the mountaineers and students who are manning his lifeline must pull it up slowly, one short grip at a time.
44:32But Taziyev may be torn to pieces on the jagged volcanic rock.
44:36For a minute he is lost entirely in a cloud of steaming gas, bursting from one of the new vents.
45:06Taziyev's gas mask has failed. He has been helpless in the deadly fumes. Without oxygen, he weakened and slipped from the ladder.
45:20His lungs are scalded by the steaming gas. He wants to go down again, but even the old mountaineer admits the struggle on the rope has exhausted him.
45:30This time, Miragongo has won.
45:36I feel Bach or Mozart or Haydn or Vivaldi do far better on the high mountain, in the big caves, or in the mectic volcanoes, than in a conflict.
46:04Because beautiful music is something that displays as nature itself.
46:17There is more for Harun Taziyev in the volcano than science and adventure.
46:22There is the music of the human spirit that cries out to be heard, above the chaos of nature's indifferent roar.
46:29There is the dream in man's soul not to conquer nature, but to live with her in harmony.
46:35It has been so since man first realized how lonely and insignificant is his place on this violent earth.
46:43The merciless fury of nature continues to batter man's fragile foothold on the planet.
46:59In the tragic aftermath of tidal wave and flood, volcanic eruption of earthquake, man has little left but his own will to survive.
47:13All over the world, even modern technology proves no defense against the infinite destructive forces of nature.
47:23The power that demolishes the monuments to man's progress takes its greatest toll on human life.
47:29The frail figure of man, struggling for life against natural disaster, shows the helplessness of all nations when faced with the awesome powers of the earth.
47:42Yet man endures on the planet.
47:45It seems the same unconquerable power of nature is in the nature of man.
47:52I think that man's nature is to fight.
47:57Beginning it was to fight against nature, just to survive.
48:00Then it was to fight against other man, to get more places to become more powerful.
48:06When man is what is now called civilized, he tries to fight against ignorance, tries to understand.
48:21All science, all scientific purpose is to try to diminish the huge amount of ignorance in which we live.
48:32To try to understand the world, the outside world, the inside world, and all this is extraordinarily thrilling.
48:42And doing things, on the other hand, doing things against what seems to be unvaluable, is also extremely exciting.
48:55Both of these very human tendencies are at the base of our try to understand volcanoes.
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