Even in a dream, you can't imagine such a strange scene.
"Heartfire: Requiem for the Volcano Couple"
This is an up-close image taken by the French volcanologist couple, Katia and Maurice.
At that time, there was not so much protective equipment and high-tech shooting tools.
Dressed in rudimentary protective clothing or even just their own thick clothes, one with a small video recorder and the other with a camera, they walked to the crater to take a wild shot of the nearby lava.
Ultra-hot boulders, magma, and debris rained down around them, killing them at any time.
But they were happy like fools and danced with death.
It's an eternal triangular relationship, the volcano, the third person they both love.
In the couple's short half-life, they have visited more than 150 volcanic eruptions.
Fascinated by the wonders of lava flowing from the center of the earth to the surface, they dream of one day floating on the lava in a specially insulated dinghy and flowing from the top of the volcano to the sea.
However, the price of dreaming is life.
On June 3, 1991, Mount Unzendake in Japan erupted suddenly, engulfing the entire village, including the young couple who were filming on the mountainside.
They received the news of the volcano's recent frequent activity and came to Japan to do research.
Katia and Maurice died in the service of their beloved volcano cause.
Documentary "Volcano Love"
Twelve days later, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted, one of the largest eruptions of the 20th century.
Thanks to the large number of volcanic educational videos taken by the couple during their lifetime, the Philippine government paid attention to it, and more than 58,000 civilians who were evacuated early were spared.
Morris once said:
I've seen so many volcanic eruptions that I don't care if I die tomorrow.
What kind of passion drives them to die at any time?
And what kind of love can be separated from the wear and tear of firewood, rice, oil and salt, and forever as hot as magma?
After 30 years, their story is finally remembered.
With a new 9-point film "Volcano Love" scored by 12,000 people, tell the world about it.
Katia and Morris saw the eruption for the first time, at the age of 18 and 7 respectively.
At that time, they were all "freaks" in the eyes of their peers.
Katia's parents gave her this German name in the hope that their daughter could be as dignified and elegant as Princess Sisi.
It's just that Katia didn't get her parents' wish.
Naughty and bold, she grew up sneaking out of the house every night to compete in motorcycle races with iron cages. Because of his unruly personality, he was sent by his parents to a school that specializes in rebellious girls.
The school's strict discipline did not contain Katia's adventurous spirit.
She aspires to be a volcanologist or detective novelist, one taking risks in actual action and the other in imagination.
It wasn't until she was 18 that she convinced her parents to take her to see Mount Etna in Italy.
The picture of magma flowing in the dark of night that night was extremely beautiful.
She later said:
Once you've seen [the volcano] eruption, you can't live without it because it's so spectacular and amazing.
She didn't know that a boy in another small town not far from her house had said something similar:
When you have seen such spectacle, there is no way to live a mediocre life anymore.
The boy was Morris.
Like Katia, Morris also feels a sense of separation from the 40s and 50s in which he was born.
He has been very interested in the earth since he was a child, immersed in geological observation, and often feels that he lived in the age of dinosaurs or trilobites.
When he returned to the Stromboli volcano he saw for the first time as a child at the age of 19, he was happy and lonely.
Katia knows exactly what it feels like to be lonely.
They met at the University of Strasbourg in 1966 and became inseparable.
The reason is simple, it is difficult to find a second person who "shares their weird taste".
Just as in the understanding of posterity, Sartre and Beauvoir maintained an open relationship and could still be together for more than 50 years, because few contemporaries could match their height.
This can be described as the loneliness of a genius, or the loneliness of a freak.
Therefore, the reason why they fell in love is also purer than most.
Just because of ideals, interests, and pursuit of similarity.
Only you understand me.
This ideal must have taken a very high part of their lives to give up everything in the world, including not having children after marriage, to ensure that they will only be accompanied by volcanoes in the rest of their lives.
This kind of determination to fight for ideals may be difficult to understand now.
When you put it in the context of the times, you can get a glimpse of some of the sources of their madness.
Katia was born in 1942 and Morris in 1946.
Growing up in the ruins of the post-war Alsace in France, they have always had a certain sense of insecurity and uncertainty about the world.
Nature and volcanoes became their refuge.
When they escape into volcanology, they are fleeing into a place that is greater than human beings and worthy of nostalgia than the world.
Why do you say that?
Because of their greed for power, human beings have waged wars, destroyed the world, and slaughtered civilians, making them already disappointed in humanity.
Two men participate in demonstrations against the Vietnam War
The mysterious magnificence and incomprehensibility of volcanoes are obviously more worthy of devotion than human beings are pure and great.
And man's ridiculous pursuit of power also seems useless and absurd under the power of the earth.
In other words, what they can't get in the human world can be obtained from volcanic research.
The flames of the volcanic eruption are also the fire of their hearts, and when they have this moment, they are not willing to return to a mediocre life.
"Heartfire: Requiem for the Volcano Couple"
So the couple began a 25-year life with cameras, video cameras, anti-hot asbestos clothing, and backpacks.
Wherever there is a fax or phone call, immediately rush there.
They love each other because of the volcano and live because of the volcano.
Some people may be curious that to visit volcanoes around the world, in addition to enthusiasm, energy, but also the support of money.
How do they make money?
Or what exactly do they do on their volcano exploration journey?
It started in 1973 when they witnessed the eruption of Iceland's Elderfeld volcano.
On that occasion, volcanic lava destroyed hundreds of buildings and engulfed the town, but fortunately residents were safely evacuated within a day without causing deaths.
On January 24, 1973, the volcano behind the port of the town of Westmanna Eyal was erupting
Mr. and Mrs. Morris, who returned to France, told the public about their stories and raised 12,000 francs by selling the volcanic slag they collected, which they donated to Iceland.
Since then, their adventure has been divided into three parts of the cycle:
Raise funds - chase volcanoes - present research results to the public.
And so on and so forth.
The public undoubtedly loves such legends, and they frequently go on television to share the rock samples and adventures they brought back from the volcano.
From the images revealed in the documentary "Volcano Love", it is often seen that the outgoing Morris is responsible for exporting to the outside world, and the introverted Katia sits solemnly on the sidelines.
When the host asked them, have they ever tried to classify volcanoes?
Morris does not hesitate to say that the classification of volcanoes should be banned because each volcano has a unique character.
Although they sit in front of the television and seem to be close to the public, the free and uninhibited soul of the volcanologist is still far from the human world that obeys the law.
Morris almost mercilessly offended the rules.
"It's not right that only old people and nerds will categorize things and force entire generations to apply their models."
For them, the human world is still a boring world.
"If I could eat stones, I'd rather stay on a volcano forever." Morris said.
Well, no matter how great the ideal home, it can't escape the problem of eating.
They hold lectures, organize materials, write books, go on TV, solicit sponsorships, and write back to the children who want them, and then return to the world of volcanoes.
In this dangerous world, they must support and cooperate with each other.
Katia is a geochemist with an eye for detail and the connections between things.
Morris was a geologist who was macroscopic and focused on single events.
The difference in professionalism and personality traits makes the husband and wife have a clear division of labor.
At the eruption site, Katia collected samples and captured still footage with a camera.
Morris, on the other hand, was dynamic and loved to make videos, and he was eager to capture these fleeting wonders, so he kept climbing and walking on the rocks.
This scared Katia.
She was always worried that she would never see Morris again as she walked.
Because once the ground collapses, people will fall into the magma, almost no sparks will be splashed, and they will disappear without a trace.
Later, when studying the erupting volcano on a remote island, the two had to take turns guarding outside the tent 24 hours a day, and as soon as a boulder erupted, they would immediately wake each other up and flee.
Morris was also afraid that Katia would be hurt, and although he was by his side, he could not do anything.
Watching a loved one die because there is no cure is a terrible thing for anyone.
They can't bear each other's death.
Therefore, Katia often walked behind Maurice.
She said that wherever he went, I would follow him, and if he died, I would be with him.
It is this belief in unity that they can go into hell and snatch breathtaking images from the devil's claws.
At the top of the volcano, they experience the ultimate joy.
At the same time, they had to endure the pain of destruction.
In 1977, Katia and Morris were summoned by a telegram to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa.
It turned out that the Nyiragongo volcano they had visited four years ago was like a hollowed bathtub, with magma gushing out in minutes.
The people who rushed to the market in the morning were swallowed by magma; The carcass of the elephant was completely imprinted in the magma.
The surrounding life is in ruins.
It was the first time they had experienced the power of volcanic destruction, and they were clearly not prepared for the shock.
Compared to the lifespan of volcanoes, human life is only a moment.
When Katia climbed the volcano, she felt like an insignificant ant climbing on the back of a giant beast, delusionally trying to explore its 10,000-year-old secrets.
While she was shocked by the unknowability of the volcano, she was even more determined to explore this unknowability.
The pain of destruction made her find more meaning than interest.
Only if she takes a step closer to the volcano can humanity take a step away from the volcanic catastrophe.
Risking their own safety, they went deep into the belly of the volcano to conduct exploration and research.
After the eruption, everyone fled, and every three minutes there was a violent explosion on the island.
They watch 24 hours a day, checking for volcanic bombs.
When the dangerous magma exploded, the slightest carelessness would pay a terrible price, but they still did not leave by boat.
After the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
They spent three months in volcanic ash, monitoring, filming and studying the force.
Little by little, they and other colleagues pieced together the original picture of the incident.
Studies have shown that the volcano ejected 2.8 cubic kilometers of material, which is equivalent to the force of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima multiplied by 25,000 times.
Two volcanologists died in the eruption, one was their longtime friend David Johnston.
Killed by the blast, the bones were gone, leaving only a working tape.
Volcanologists had predicted that the blast would not reach more than 7 or 8 kilometers, but it turned out to be 30 kilometers, and Johnston died exactly 10 kilometers north of the volcano.
It can also be said that Johnston died of inaccurate predictions.
This incident hit them hard.
Katia said in frustration on the TV show:
Whatever they found after the explosion, they couldn't make the most critical predictions before the outbreak—the intensity of the outbreak, and the trigger mechanism (when the outbreak started).
That is, you know there's a bomb here.
But you don't know how much explosive is in it, and you don't know the length of the fuse.
So you don't know when to run and how far to run to be safe.
It was from this moment on that they devoted themselves to the study of ash volcanoes, the "killing volcanoes".
However, the tragic eruption of the Deruiz volcano in Colombia in 1985, which killed 22,000 people, caused them to shift their focus in heartbreak.
It turned out that before the eruption of Mount Deruiz, geoscientists in Colombia submitted predictions to the government.
The report states that the volcano is bound to erupt, with a 100% chance of mudslides and a great threat to surrounding towns.
Katia, Morris and others appealed to the government to build a warning system and implement an evacuation plan.
However, policymakers dismissed evacuation warnings because the plan was too costly.
When Katia rushed to the scene of the disaster, she described herself as "a shameless self-proclaimed volcanologist."
She didn't understand that the catastrophe of the 18th and 19th centuries, usually because of a lack of information, took many lives, how could this still happen in the 20th century, when everyone had common sense?
For the first time in her life, she questioned her mission.
Katia also realized that the technical report meant nothing to those who did not understand volcanoes.
So they made a bold decision.
Shoot videos about the victims, damage, and dangers of volcanic eruptions and show them to the government, so that they can intuitively feel the power of destruction.
They set out to find the rarest and most dangerous blast sites to shoot educational films of the volcanic disaster.
Shooting 50 meters from a blasteric chur, it's almost a gamble.
As mentioned at the beginning, their efforts were not in vain.
Before the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, their film brought the government to attention and implemented the evacuation plan ahead of schedule.
By then, Katia and Morris had sacrificed their lifelong passions.
According to traces on the ground of the volcano where they are buried, Mount Unzendake.
At the moment of death, Katia and Maurice snuggled together.
Death, to them, is like a celebration that has long been prepared.
Morris was mentally prepared for this. He once wrote:
I want to live a wonderful and short life, better than a long and boring life.
I don't want to give them a noble meaning to give up their lives.
If Katia and Morris indulge in volcanoes, there is a reason for their disappointment in human nature and their boredom with the world.
But when they moved away from the crowd, they fell in love with humans again.
This is not a contradiction.
Many great philosophers and scientists hate concrete and mediocre people, but are willing to dedicate their lives to abstract human beings.
Or rather, they sacrificed their lives for the beauty of the volcano.
They don't want to see beautiful things – volcanoes – and become murderers.
They are willing to give their lives to preserve this beauty.
I think at that moment they were happy.
The last photo of the two before the eruption of Mount Unzendake