His father was conscripted into the Russian Army and died during the First World War, a fact that did not reach the family until 1919.

Haroun Tazieff participated in the first detailed exploration of the "Saint-Martin" La Verna cave system in the French Pyrenees.

He became famous in France after publishing a book entitled, "Le Gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin" in 1952.

[2] He directed the documentary movie Le volcan interdit (1966) about the Nyiragongo Mountain in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he was the first to climb in 1948.

[1] His publications, mostly in French, were translated into English,[3] and included texts about forecasting volcanic and earthquake events.