Volcanology, part 1

By far the most gentle of the songs on handmade, “Volcanology” is dedicated to the memory of two people I admire:  Maurice and Katia Krafft., a married couple who made a career of studying, photographing, and filming erupting volcanos.

When I’m not playing music, I’m a middle school science teacher.  During the Earth Science unit, there is a National Geographic video I like to show called “Volcano!” (1990).  This video features the Kraffts and their work.

Even at first glance, there is much to admire about them: their bravery, their love for their work, their legendary ability to always be first on the scene of an eruption.  They found something they loved, and they made a life of it.

However, both of them were horrified by what they found in the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia.  There, dozens of kilometers away from the eruption, towns were destroyed by lahars (pyroclastic mudflows).  Volcanologists had warned that the area needed to be evacuated, but no one listened.

The Kraffts sought to create a unique video, one that would be shown to officials in areas with possible dangerous eruptions.  In 1990, when Mt. Pinatubo was starting to erupt in the Phillipines, their footage of previous volcanic disasters helped convince the authorities to evacuate the area.

How many lives did they save with that film?

The very next year, 1991, they were trying to photograph the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan.  Unfortunately, all the helicopters were booked by journalists, and they found themselves hiking toward the site.

After years of chasing volcanoes, one finally caught them; they were killed in a pyroclastic flow.

Now, keep in mind, the National Geographic video was published in 1990; the Kraffts met their fate on Mount Unzen a year later.  Therefore, if you watch the video, you have no idea what happened next.

Well, after showing the video that first time, I investigated, and found out what happened.  It hit me kind of hard.  Watching “Volcano!” you get a real sense of who these people were, and come to admire them.  Then to find out they’re not still out there dancing with Pele is depressing.

However, they at least lived their lives as they wished, doing what they loved.  This song, therefore, is not an epitaph, but a celebration of the joy I saw them experiencing together.