Haroun Tazieff

11-MAY-1914 - 06-FEB-1998


photography
Haroun Tazieff. Public Domain.
photography
Haroun Tazieff. Public Domain.

Haroun Tazieff was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1914. He was a leading French volcano expert, photographer and director. He wrote and produced numerous documentaries on volcanoes. He even had one Oscar nomination for his documentary Le Vulcan Interdit (The Forbidden Volcano) in 1966. During the early 1950s he travelled with Jaques Cousteau.

Although Haroun Tazieff did not do much cave research, he is an important caver for his few but outstanding contributions. He was a member of the exploration team of Gouffre Pierre-Saint-Martin in the Pyrenees on the border between France and Spain. In 1951, 1952 and 1953 a team of cavers tried to explore the deepest cave of the World, which it then was for decades. He made a documentary of the cave and the search for the underground river, which was later used by a hydroelectric power station. This story is told really tantalising by PeopleNorbert Casteret in Sondeurs d'abimes.


Biography

11-MAY-1914 born in Warsaw, Poland.
1936 adopts Belgian nationality, living in Brussels at the time.
1938 graduates as agronomist.
1944 graduates as geologist.
1951 expedition into Gouffre Pierre Saint-Martin.
1952 expedition into Gouffre Pierre Saint-Martin.
1961 Les eaux souterraines.
1977 works for Laboratoire de Volcanologi, Centre de Faibles Radioactivities, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
1984 served as secretary of state for the prevention of natural and technological disasters in France.
06-FEB-1998 died in Paris.

Bibliography