A riveting history of the Mount St. Helens eruption that will “long stand as a classic of descriptive narrative” (Simon Winchester).For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, and nearby residents listened anxiously to rumblings from Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington State. Still, no one was prepared when a cataclysmic eruption blew the top off of the mountain, laying waste to … the mountain, laying waste to hundreds of square miles of land and killing fifty-seven people. Steve Olson interweaves vivid personal stories with the history, science, and economic forces that influenced the fates and futures of those around the volcano. Eruption delivers a spellbinding narrative of an event that changed the course of volcanic science, and an epic tale of our fraught relationship with the natural world.
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A compelling story. My brother and his wife heard it explode from south central Oregon. Volcanoes are fascinating.
The best book about this subject. Very detailed & complete. Learned so much about the volcano & its effects, the areas around it & the impact it had on everything & everyone afterward. The author did a great job. Highly recommend!
I did learn about the politics and the victims of the Mt. St. Helen’s explosion.
To get there, I had to slog through a biography of George Weyerhaeuser so long I wondered if this was just another way to advertise Weyerhaeuser. It was unnecessarily long despite the concessions his wealth and business received that impacted the overall fatality …
If only the politicians and corporate big shots had done their jobs, many lives could have been saved. A great history lesson in how the Pacific Northwest was settled and the tremendous influence of the biggest logging companies.
Having lived through this, I was anticipating a refresher course. What I got was, as they say, too much information. I can see where an author has to walk a fine line between letting the reader know what happened and being criticized for not writing a complete historical text.
It is informative and if you are like me, skim (I love to read and …
Lots of info and easy to read.
Fascinating description of events leading up to and after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens
Would have liked less history and more science
Too much unrelated history is why I give this book only four stars.
Too too much background and history . But good explanation of Mt St helens eruption.
Excellent! Very informative.
Great read, informational and historical. Much time has passed since the eruption but this give ample time to accumulate and publish the complete picture. Story was well wrtten and focused on the lives and history of the people who experienced the event.
Once again some people who should have known better completely underestimated the power of a volcano. If I saw a volcano begin to bulge, I might think it could erupt. Also I didn’t think much of the timber company chairman for continuing the logging operations at the base of the mountain. If the main eruption had not occurred on a Sunday, many …
Great history of the development of Mount St. Helens from our nations earliest days. Gave background on the people and circumstances that lead up to the eruption in 1980 and the aftermath. Talked about the effect of the eruption on the community and various governmental changes.