1 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:05,800 In a cold world, all the watches started to freeze. 2 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:11,640 The sun came and went between blizzards and gusts which erased all bearings. 3 00:03:13,640 --> 00:03:15,800 In this world lived a fire 4 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,520 and in this fire, two lovers found a home. 5 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:15,080 All right. The volcano is ready, waiting for us. 6 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:16,560 Yes. 7 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:22,400 Okay. 8 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:31,160 Katia? 9 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:46,160 This is Katia, and this is Maurice. 10 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,040 It's 1991, June 2nd. 11 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:52,880 Tomorrow will be their last day. 12 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:57,520 They will leave behind samples. 13 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:00,240 Words. 14 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:04,160 Hundreds of hours of footage. 15 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:07,920 Thousands of photos. 16 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:12,640 And a million questions. 17 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:16,720 The Muana Loa. 18 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:28,680 They meet 19 years ago. 19 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:31,680 In 1966. 20 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:38,120 There is no definitive account of this first encounter 21 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,040 and the visual record of their budding romance is sparse. 22 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:45,360 There is this photo... 23 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,040 and these rose-tinted moments a few years later. 24 00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:00,080 Parts of Katia and Maurice's story remain lost to time. 25 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,000 As in love, there are mysteries. 26 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:13,160 You fall hard for what you know. 27 00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:16,760 Harder for what you don't. 28 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,280 In one story, Katia and Maurice meet by chance on a bench 29 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:26,640 at the University of Strasbourg. 30 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:35,240 In a second, 31 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:39,920 they meet at a new film by renowned volcanologist Haroun Tazieff. 32 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:47,240 The most detailed account is a blind date at a café. 33 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:54,400 They bond over their first loves, Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli. 34 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,680 Katia, a rebel who was sent to a school for unruly girls, 35 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:04,440 convinces her parents to take her to Italy's volcanoes. 36 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:52,240 Maurice would return to Stromboli 37 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:53,680 at age 19, 38 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:57,400 feeling at once ecstasy and loneliness. 39 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:04,240 Katia understands this loneliness. 40 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:06,600 It is also hers. 41 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:18,000 Growing up in the rubble of postwar Alsace, 42 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:22,560 the world felt to them unsafe, uncertain. 43 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:31,160 They take refuge in the mysteries of the natural world. 44 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:39,880 Dreaming, just 20 kilometers apart. 45 00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:45,480 The Vosges and Rhine fault lines shifting imperceptibly beneath them. 46 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:53,240 At the end of this version, the café closes and it begins to rain. 47 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:57,440 They will never leave each other. 48 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:48,080 November 19th, 1967, 49 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:51,160 a U.S. fighter plane drops two snake-eye bombs 50 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:53,320 along the South Vietnam border... 51 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:57,360 the territory once colonized as French Indochina. 52 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:00,720 One week later, 53 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:04,360 Katia and Maurice join anti-war protests in Paris. 54 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,840 The next day, they show up on the front page of L'Humanité. 55 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:17,560 But human pursuits of power begin to feel vain and absurd 56 00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:19,480 next to the power of the Earth. 57 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:38,920 It's also the plate tectonic revolution, 58 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:42,320 and the field of volcanology is finding its form. 59 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,840 They devour each hypothesis, each myth. 60 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:11,920 Everything that has been gleaned so far from the archives of the Earth. 61 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:16,520 The truths... 62 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:18,920 the fragments... 63 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:21,520 the questions. 64 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,520 They wonder what forms and re-forms the world. 65 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:35,640 To these mysteries they long to get closer. 66 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,320 With just enough grant money and a donated car, 67 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,120 Katia and Maurice go seek Iceland's volcanoes 68 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:00,960 with their friend, Roland. 69 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:03,760 Katia is the geochemist, 70 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:06,040 Maurice the geologist. 71 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:09,640 Alone, they could only dream of volcanoes. 72 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:12,760 Together, they can reach them. 73 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:22,000 Except the car breaks down 27 times. 74 00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:25,920 Then crashes. 75 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:30,800 And Maurice gets into hot water. 76 00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:35,120 Here is an actor reading Katia's account. 77 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,080 Undeterred, they spend the next few summers 78 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:12,960 studying their mutual friends, Etna and Stromboli. 79 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,320 They also bring along more human friends. 80 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:19,760 L'Équipe Vulcain, they call themselves. 81 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:26,040 Katia and Maurice are after 82 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,480 the strange alchemy of elements, 83 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,000 the combination of mineral, heat, 84 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,440 gas and time that incites an eruption. 85 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:44,440 What is it, they ask, that makes the Earth's heart beat? 86 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:46,560 Its blood flow? 87 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:55,680 They study, examine and question. 88 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,040 Katia and Maurice begin to learn the secrets of the planet 89 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:03,040 that few others know. 90 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:13,720 Understanding is love's other name. 91 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:47,560 1970, 92 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:51,800 Katia and Maurice marry in a small ceremony in Alsace. 93 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,320 They honeymoon on the volcanic island of Santorini, 94 00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,280 believed to be the secret location of Atlantis. 95 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:10,760 Katia and Maurice decide they will not have children. 96 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,880 “From here on out, life will only be volcanoes, 97 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,840 "volcanoes, volcanoes,” Maurice says. 98 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,000 The young field of volcanology 99 00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:04,160 has found two young stars. 100 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:12,960 The camera loves them. 101 00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:16,360 And they love their own cameras back. 102 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:24,160 Photography is a means of remembering, revisiting, 103 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:26,920 stretching their time with volcanoes. 104 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:43,560 This photo shows the parabolic trajectories 105 00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:46,280 of volcanic bombs ejected from Stromboli. 106 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,240 This one shows how lava is stretched into glass wool 107 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:51,840 called Pele's hair. 108 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:56,240 And this shot helps visualize plate tectonic theory. 109 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:05,800 Volcanology is a science of observation. 110 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:10,000 The closer they get, the more they see. 111 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,680 The very instant a volcano wakes up, 112 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:24,200 these weirdoes are notified 113 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,800 by a growing network of local friends and guides who help them 114 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:31,120 reach the craters as fast as humanly possible. 115 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:51,280 Maurice and Katia make their expedition to Nyiragongo, 116 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,880 a volcano that sits between two diverging plates. 117 00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:01,760 They are guided by fellow volcanologist Jacques Durieux. 118 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,320 You arrive at the mouth of the volcano, 119 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:09,680 then you have to go 120 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:13,160 in the mouth of the volcano. So you are going down. 121 00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:17,240 Not so high, 300 meters. But very bad rock. 122 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,200 All kinds of fumaroles went through, and so it's not strong. 123 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,400 Here, Maurice and Katia make their home 124 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:50,040 for the next two weeks. 125 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:06,360 Katia would later write... 126 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:56,560 Suddenly, the lava plunges down 127 00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:58,480 ten meters in seconds. 128 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:34,960 Katia and Maurice will eventually emerge 129 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,400 from this crater unscathed and emboldened. 130 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:55,400 In the immense universe 131 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:57,560 that is the classification of volcanoes, 132 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:01,680 the Kraffts will eventually adopt two general classes. 133 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:03,040 Red... 134 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:06,440 and gray. 135 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,240 Red volcanoes, like Nyiragongo, 136 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,040 form as tectonic plates pull apart, 137 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,640 and at hotspots on the ocean floor. 138 00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,880 Magma rises and fills in the gaps opened up by the movement of the Earth, 139 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,000 creating new land. 140 00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:41,560 Red volcanoes are basaltic. 141 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:43,400 Effusive. 142 00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,640 And up to 1200 degrees Celsius hot. 143 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,520 Katia and Maurice have their differences. 144 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:11,440 Katia is like a bird. 145 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,480 Maurice, an elephant seal. 146 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,840 Katia is drawn to details, the interconnectedness of things. 147 00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:38,080 Maurice, the singular, the grandiose. 148 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:47,160 They both observe the world, but in their own distinct ways. 149 00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:56,040 Katia, with her still camera, captures one moment with one frame. 150 00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:04,120 Maurice chases motion... 151 00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:08,640 recording a stream of seconds, 24 frames each. 152 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:16,560 He thirsts to get every possible shot, because the spectacle could vanish. 153 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,760 But this causes him to wander... 154 00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:23,720 and wander... 155 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:27,520 and wander. 156 00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:34,000 Katia's greatest fear is that she will lose sight of him... 157 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:36,840 and never see him again. 158 00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:15,440 A surprise telegram summons Katia... 159 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:16,920 and Maurice to Nyiragongo, 160 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,160 their beloved volcano that they met four years ago. 161 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:21,720 Katia and Maurice knew 162 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:23,800 this kind of destruction was possible. 163 00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:27,680 But this is the first time they experience it firsthand. 164 00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:38,400 The lava flows were going very... very fast. 165 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:43,840 They were probably running at 60 to 70 kilometers per hour. 166 00:36:45,240 --> 00:36:49,320 And this was in the morning where a lot of people were on the road 167 00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:50,920 going for the market. 168 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:56,400 We think that around 100 people were overwhelmed by the lava flow. 169 00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,000 Very unusual eruption. 170 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,040 No amount of scientific research 171 00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:34,240 could have prepared them for this shock. 172 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,720 The language of myth instead feels apt. 173 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,120 They're in the cauldron of the devil, 174 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:44,960 the portal to hell. 175 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,320 Or caught amid the warring spirits of the volcano, 176 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:53,560 according to the stories from their friends in Goma. 177 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:54,920 For Katia and Maurice, 178 00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:58,080 the unknown is not something to be feared. 179 00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:00,600 It is something to go toward. 180 00:41:12,240 --> 00:41:14,120 At only 52 years old 181 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:17,880 an infant Indonesian volcano begins to throw a fit. 182 00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:20,880 Katia and Maurice go chase it. 183 00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:29,320 In 1883, its parent, a volcano named Krakatau, exploded. 184 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:33,200 It conjured a tsunami so forceful that it swept 185 00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:38,480 neighboring coastlines, killing 36,417 people. 186 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:44,720 It also ripped up this coral from the seafloor 187 00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:48,760 and parked a colonial Dutch steamship two miles inland. 188 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:54,000 Ash traveled the globe, intensifying sunsets that transfixed 189 00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:58,520 the gaze of scientists and artists, especially one Norwegian painter 190 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,280 who described the sunsets as a scream. 191 00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:07,760 Then the volcano collapsed into the sea... 192 00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:14,080 only to spring up again as a newcomer called Anak Krakatau. 193 00:44:53,240 --> 00:44:56,160 Katia and Maurice must be totally in sync. 194 00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,520 Any mistake that one makes can be costly for the both of them. 195 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,920 But Maurice cannot do this work without Katia. 196 00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:08,080 Neither can Katia, without Maurice. 197 00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:12,760 And together, they're there for the volcano, 198 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:16,280 who is indifferent in the face of their adulation. 199 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:34,880 Katia and Maurice know 200 00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,120 that these rocks will long outlive them. 201 00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:44,160 They are not religious. 202 00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:47,120 "We are scientists," they say. 203 00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:52,520 "We have but this one short life, then we return to the ground." 204 00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:11,440 With her one short life, Katia dreams of growing old 205 00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:15,960 with the volcano, of turning over its every stone. 206 00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:34,880 Maurice burns to get closer to the fire, no matter what. 207 00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:37,560 He once wrote, 208 00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:16,240 Maurice hatches this plan 209 00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:17,880 from another boating adventure 210 00:49:18,240 --> 00:49:21,840 during their first trip to Indonesia in 1971. 211 00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:29,320 Here, they study the largest reserve 212 00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:31,440 of sulfuric acid in the world. 213 00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:45,120 MAURICE: F 214 00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:49,440 Suddenly, the acid eats through the steel cable 215 00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:52,400 and claims the sample bottle at the bottom of the lake. 216 00:51:58,360 --> 00:51:59,880 This mission is over. 217 00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:04,640 A headwind sweeps them further from shore. 218 00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:09,640 They will spend the next three hours struggling to get back. 219 00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:13,760 Katia is furious. 220 00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:54,680 Over time, Maurice perfects 221 00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:56,920 the legend of Maurice Krafft. 222 00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:13,440 And together, 223 00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,640 he and Katia have gotten good at playing themselves. 224 00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:45,680 Despite what Maurice says, 225 00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:48,000 their footage suggests otherwise. 226 00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:59,640 For instance, how do they show that their work is grueling? 227 00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:02,920 Perhaps like this? 228 00:54:06,000 --> 00:54:07,040 Or this? 229 00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:13,360 How do they show how to gaze into the abyss? 230 00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:16,360 Perhaps like this. 231 00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,520 How do they stage geologic scale? 232 00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:28,680 With images like this? 233 00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:42,360 But what about this? 234 00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:55,920 Why was this moment captured with their rationed feet of film? 235 00:54:58,240 --> 00:55:00,560 What or who was it for? 236 00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:15,000 Now and again, Katia and Maurice must go back to Alsace 237 00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:18,400 to turn their photos and footage into books and films. 238 00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:23,040 Here, they are denizens of this human world. 239 00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:21,200 In order to get back home to the volcano, 240 00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:23,200 they must pay the bills. 241 00:56:24,520 --> 00:56:26,560 Katia catalogues their images, 242 00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:28,040 writes the books 243 00:56:28,720 --> 00:56:30,480 and handles the logistics. 244 00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:36,320 Maurice takes the lecture tour, media appearances, 245 00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:39,400 tries in vain to plan his lava canoe trip. 246 00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:50,280 He also edits their films. 247 00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:22,400 Ball is in. 248 00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:25,200 Danger. 249 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:29,520 Danger. 250 00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:36,280 Over in the United States, volcanologist Harry Glicken 251 00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:40,760 takes this photo of Mount St. Helens on May 17, 1980. 252 00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:44,240 What follows are some of the best-known images 253 00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:46,120 of what will happen here tomorrow, 254 00:57:46,560 --> 00:57:52,520 starting at eight hours, 32 minutes, 11.4 seconds Pacific Daylight Time. 255 00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:31,000 Fifty-three kilometers to the east on Mount Adams, 256 00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:33,200 a hiker takes these photos. 257 00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:37,440 Fifty-six kilometers to the northwest, 258 00:58:37,840 --> 00:58:39,400 this image is taken. 259 00:58:40,680 --> 00:58:44,760 Somewhere further, an eight-millimeter film camera records this. 260 00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:55,200 As for Maurice and Katia, 261 00:58:55,320 --> 00:58:57,640 they did not film or photograph this eruption... 262 00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:00,240 because they could not see or hear it. 263 00:59:25,840 --> 00:59:28,560 As ash descends on the surrounding area... 264 00:59:30,000 --> 00:59:32,480 Katia and Maurice make their approach. 265 01:02:01,520 --> 01:02:04,680 Katia and Maurice will spend three months amid the ash... 266 01:02:05,880 --> 01:02:09,840 monitoring, photographing, studying this force. 267 01:02:12,520 --> 01:02:15,680 And little by little, they and their fellow researchers 268 01:02:15,960 --> 01:02:19,720 will paint a clearer picture of the event, with numbers like 269 01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:21,320 two point eight, 270 01:02:21,640 --> 01:02:25,440 the number of cubic kilometers of land cast off by the mountain. 271 01:02:27,480 --> 01:02:30,280 Twenty-five thousand, the eruption's force measured 272 01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:33,320 in atomic bombs like the one that the United States dropped 273 01:02:33,400 --> 01:02:34,640 on Hiroshima. 274 01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:39,360 Fifty-seven, the official human death toll. 275 01:02:44,400 --> 01:02:48,480 At one point, they will find the melted tapes of David Johnston. 276 01:03:31,600 --> 01:03:34,160 No matter what they discover after the blast... 277 01:03:35,240 --> 01:03:37,160 they come no closer to understanding how 278 01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:40,600 to make the most critical measurements before it. 279 01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:01,520 From this moment on, 280 01:04:01,720 --> 01:04:05,440 they will devote their lives to this kind of volcano. 281 01:04:06,280 --> 01:04:07,480 The gray volcano. 282 01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:09,440 The killer volcano. 283 01:04:58,800 --> 01:05:00,840 Gray volcanoes may be killers, 284 01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:04,640 but their ash makes the most fertile soil in the world, 285 01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:07,800 as demonstrated by this killer turnip. 286 01:05:11,520 --> 01:05:15,200 Unlike red volcanoes, which form when plates pull apart, 287 01:05:15,440 --> 01:05:18,960 grays form when plates collide, causing pressure and heat 288 01:05:19,040 --> 01:05:22,160 to build and build until a cataclysmic release. 289 01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:28,920 A Who's-Who of such eruptions would include Vesuvius in the year 79, 290 01:05:29,400 --> 01:05:31,520 Tambora in 1815, 291 01:05:31,920 --> 01:05:34,240 and Pelée in 1902. 292 01:05:37,440 --> 01:05:39,240 Here is a relatively small one, 293 01:05:39,720 --> 01:05:41,920 Galunggung, in 1982. 294 01:05:48,400 --> 01:05:51,480 And here's Una-Una in 1983. 295 01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:05,720 There may be signs before an eruption, 296 01:07:06,200 --> 01:07:10,120 but there is no certainty. No way of knowing the exact timing. 297 01:07:11,200 --> 01:07:13,840 And timing is everything in the human world. 298 01:07:17,640 --> 01:07:19,040 In 1884, 299 01:07:19,240 --> 01:07:23,280 time was set to machines instead of the wild rhythms of the Earth. 300 01:07:24,560 --> 01:07:27,520 No longer told by the Sun, Moon or stars, 301 01:07:27,720 --> 01:07:31,840 it relied on manufactured intervals to coordinate railway cars 302 01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:34,120 transporting minerals ripped from the Earth. 303 01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:39,800 Embraced by the British Empire, this new railway time soon 304 01:07:39,880 --> 01:07:41,240 mapped the globe. 305 01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:47,560 But a volcano can't be scheduled. 306 01:07:49,640 --> 01:07:52,080 The length of the fuse is never known. 307 01:08:23,920 --> 01:08:26,720 This is a map drawn of Nevado del Ruiz, 308 01:08:26,880 --> 01:08:29,760 a gray volcano in Colombia's Andean range. 309 01:08:30,200 --> 01:08:35,080 It illustrates the threat if it erupts. And there's every indication that it will, 310 01:08:35,800 --> 01:08:39,880 as Colombia's geoscientists communicated to officials in reports. 311 01:08:41,120 --> 01:08:44,480 This one, presented on October 7, 1985, 312 01:08:44,600 --> 01:08:48,120 states that there is a 100 percent probability of mudflows, 313 01:08:48,440 --> 01:08:52,200 with great danger for Armero and the surrounding towns. 314 01:08:53,880 --> 01:08:55,760 Katia and Maurice are part of a chorus 315 01:08:55,840 --> 01:08:58,560 who call for warning systems and evacuation plans. 316 01:09:00,480 --> 01:09:01,920 They know what will happen. 317 01:09:03,600 --> 01:09:06,880 But the decision-makers deem these plans too costly. 318 01:09:29,640 --> 01:09:35,200 On November 14, 1985, these images circulate around the world. 319 01:09:40,880 --> 01:09:43,480 The volcano erupted the previous day, 320 01:09:43,880 --> 01:09:46,920 and the mudflows swallowed the villages late at night, 321 01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:49,160 while residents slept. 322 01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:58,400 Katia arrives while Maurice is on a lecture tour in France, 323 01:09:58,960 --> 01:10:00,640 promoting their latest film. 324 01:11:02,200 --> 01:11:05,200 The official death toll climbs to 22,000... 325 01:11:06,160 --> 01:11:07,960 and then 23,000. 326 01:11:09,320 --> 01:11:11,600 Some reports say 25,000. 327 01:11:12,960 --> 01:11:14,840 The exact number is not known. 328 01:11:19,720 --> 01:11:21,760 Survivors would later recount. 329 01:12:09,480 --> 01:12:11,160 Katia longs for Maurice, 330 01:12:11,640 --> 01:12:12,840 who is likely lecturing 331 01:12:12,920 --> 01:12:15,880 at this moment on the creative powers of volcanoes. 332 01:12:19,040 --> 01:12:22,160 For the first time, she questions her life's purpose. 333 01:13:20,320 --> 01:13:22,400 Katia and Maurice had spent their lives 334 01:13:22,520 --> 01:13:25,400 documenting how the Earth's heart beats, 335 01:13:25,640 --> 01:13:27,160 how its blood flows. 336 01:13:28,120 --> 01:13:32,240 Now they feel their own human hearts beating and breaking. 337 01:13:45,600 --> 01:13:47,600 Long ago, Maurice said... 338 01:15:57,120 --> 01:15:59,680 Volcanoes must destroy to create... 339 01:16:00,680 --> 01:16:03,840 but must this unruly cycle take human life? 340 01:16:57,920 --> 01:16:59,560 Katia and Maurice set out 341 01:16:59,680 --> 01:17:01,240 to hunt for the rarest, 342 01:17:01,440 --> 01:17:05,280 deadliest forces for a new film on volcanic hazards. 343 01:17:21,840 --> 01:17:25,000 It took them one full year to get these shots 344 01:17:25,280 --> 01:17:27,080 on Alaska's Mount Augustine. 345 01:18:39,960 --> 01:18:42,120 The camera shakes as if it's telegraphing, 346 01:18:42,200 --> 01:18:44,280 whether to stay or run. 347 01:18:48,360 --> 01:18:51,440 Perhaps it is because their colleague, Juergen Kienle, 348 01:18:51,560 --> 01:18:54,200 is about to pull them away from the burning ash cloud 349 01:18:54,280 --> 01:18:55,520 at the last second. 350 01:19:43,440 --> 01:19:46,960 Several years from now, their obituary will cite this 351 01:19:47,080 --> 01:19:50,200 as the moment where Katia and Maurice insisted that the risks 352 01:19:50,320 --> 01:19:51,760 should always be minimized... 353 01:19:53,480 --> 01:19:56,560 but that this type of close-up study had to be done. 354 01:20:22,440 --> 01:20:23,840 Maurice once said, 355 01:20:24,760 --> 01:20:28,720 “Look at how small we humans are against this volcanic force. 356 01:20:30,000 --> 01:20:33,520 "The only thing that will remain of our passage is that we can write, 357 01:20:34,040 --> 01:20:35,800 "tell stories, and film.” 358 01:21:18,960 --> 01:21:21,000 When you could die at any moment... 359 01:21:22,400 --> 01:21:23,760 what do you leave behind? 360 01:22:37,240 --> 01:22:40,080 A set of forces collide inside the planet 361 01:22:40,240 --> 01:22:43,080 throughout the enormity of geologic time 362 01:22:43,520 --> 01:22:46,040 to trigger one instant, an eruption, 363 01:22:46,520 --> 01:22:48,920 that forever re-shapes the Earth. 364 01:22:51,480 --> 01:22:54,360 And across humanity's two million years, 365 01:22:54,960 --> 01:22:58,000 two tiny humans are born in the same place, 366 01:22:58,720 --> 01:22:59,960 at the same time, 367 01:23:00,840 --> 01:23:02,680 and they love the same thing. 368 01:23:04,720 --> 01:23:07,720 And that love moved us closer to the Earth. 369 01:23:44,960 --> 01:23:47,240 June 3rd, 1991, 370 01:23:47,640 --> 01:23:51,640 Mount Unzen begins to wake up after its 200-year slumber. 371 01:23:52,480 --> 01:23:54,680 The mountain has been stirring since May, 372 01:23:55,200 --> 01:23:58,480 but today, something will shift inside the Earth. 373 01:24:32,240 --> 01:24:36,560 We hope always, but we cannot be sure, and we don't know nothing. 374 01:24:36,800 --> 01:24:40,200 You have big blocks on the top and they have to... 375 01:24:40,320 --> 01:24:41,800 to come down, but when? 376 01:24:51,240 --> 01:24:54,000 Just after 4:00 p.m., it starts to rain. 377 01:24:55,720 --> 01:24:57,840 Ash blows in on a north wind. 378 01:24:59,360 --> 01:25:01,240 Something seems different this time. 379 01:25:04,560 --> 01:25:06,560 The mist obscures their view, 380 01:25:07,040 --> 01:25:09,080 so Katia and Maurice push closer 381 01:25:09,160 --> 01:25:11,640 with their friend, Harry Glicken, to get a better shot. 382 01:26:12,600 --> 01:26:16,800 A journalist who abandoned their camera captured this shot. 383 01:26:30,720 --> 01:26:33,280 And there's this moment, just before the blast. 384 01:26:33,960 --> 01:26:36,840 The last known shot of Katia and Maurice together. 385 01:26:44,560 --> 01:26:48,640 Japanese officials gave Katia and Maurice's friend, Yves, this photo. 386 01:26:49,440 --> 01:26:52,160 Their urns resting in the Shimabara Temple 387 01:26:52,240 --> 01:26:53,680 at the base of Mount Unzen. 388 01:26:58,080 --> 01:27:01,680 Near the site of the surge, the marks on the earth indicated 389 01:27:01,760 --> 01:27:04,280 that Katia and Maurice were next to each other. 390 01:27:06,520 --> 01:27:07,800 Two items were recovered. 391 01:27:08,600 --> 01:27:10,520 A camera and a watch, 392 01:27:11,200 --> 01:27:13,200 its hands forever frozen in time 393 01:27:13,680 --> 01:27:15,200 at 4:18 p.m. 394 01:27:19,880 --> 01:27:23,520 Just over the East China Sea, Mount Pinatubo trembles. 395 01:27:24,520 --> 01:27:27,360 In one week, it will explode in the most spectacular 396 01:27:27,480 --> 01:27:30,240 volcanic eruption the Philippines has ever known. 397 01:27:31,520 --> 01:27:33,760 Fifty-eight thousand people will evacuate. 398 01:27:34,960 --> 01:27:38,600 Officials took the warning signs seriously, thanks to Katia 399 01:27:38,720 --> 01:27:41,560 and Maurice's film about understanding volcanoes. 400 01:27:49,240 --> 01:27:51,960 Across the world, near the French-German border, 401 01:27:52,440 --> 01:27:57,640 the Vosges and Rhine fault lines shift imperceptibly beneath a sleeping Earth.