Haroun Tazieff

Haroun Tazieff (Warszawa, 11 May 1914 — Paris, 6 February 1998) was a French volcanologist and geologist. He was a famous cinematographer of volcanic eruptions and lava flows, and the author of several books about volcanoes.

Born in Warsaw, Russian Empire, his father was a Tatar Muslim doctor, and his mother a Polish chemist and doctor in political sciences. He lived in Brussels, Belgium, starting in 1917.

He received a degree in agronomy in Gembloux in 1938, and another degree in geology at University of Liege in 1944. He was later a "secrétaire d'Etat" in France, in charge of prevention of major risks.

The National Geographic film The Violent Earth followed Tazieff's expeditions to the volcanoes Mount Etna , Sicily in 1971 and Mount Nyiragongo , Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire ) in 1972 in which he attempted, unsuccessfully, to descend into the active lava lake in order to collect samples.

On his passing in 1998, Tazieff was interred in Cimetière de Passy in the Parisian quarter of Passy.