Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens
By Steve Olson
Narrated by Jonathan Yen
Published March 7, 2016
Listening length: 8 hours 34 minutes
My review 3.5 out of 5 stars
Survival narrative meets scientific, natural, and social history in the riveting story of a volcanic disaster. For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, and ordinary people listened anxiously to rumblings in the longquiescent volcano Mount St. Helens. Still, when a massive explosion took the top off the mountain, no one was prepared. Fifty-seven people died, including newlywed logger John Killian (for years afterward, his father searched for him in the ash), scientist Dave Johnston, and celebrated local curmudgeon Harry Truman. The lives of many others were forever changed. Steve Olson interweaves history, science, and vivid personal stories of the volcano's victims and survivors to portray the disaster as a multifaceted turning point. Powerful economic, political, and historical forces influenced who died when the volcano erupted, and their deaths marked the end of an era in the Pacific Northwest. The eruption of Mount St. Helens transformed volcanic science, the study of environmental resilience, and our perceptions of how to survive on an increasingly dangerous planet.
This was the very informative story not only of the eruption of Mt St Helens, but of all the people around it. Lots of details about the Weyerhaeuser family and how they got their start in the Northwest logging industry. How they came to be on that mountain during that time. Many of the fatalities of that day are described, some in detail, so be aware of that detail if you read this book. I just thought it was good for me to know more about the mountain that blew up on my birthday (only four years early!) I loved hearing about all the details of what the scientists were seeing (and feeling) the months and weeks leading up to the eruption. Even the details of the day of the blast were new to me. I've seen pictures and heard my family's stories, but never details like this. It was a book worth listening to for me.
Survival narrative meets scientific, natural, and social history in the riveting story of a volcanic disaster. For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, and ordinary people listened anxiously to rumblings in the longquiescent volcano Mount St. Helens. Still, when a massive explosion took the top off the mountain, no one was prepared. Fifty-seven people died, including newlywed logger John Killian (for years afterward, his father searched for him in the ash), scientist Dave Johnston, and celebrated local curmudgeon Harry Truman. The lives of many others were forever changed. Steve Olson interweaves history, science, and vivid personal stories of the volcano's victims and survivors to portray the disaster as a multifaceted turning point. Powerful economic, political, and historical forces influenced who died when the volcano erupted, and their deaths marked the end of an era in the Pacific Northwest. The eruption of Mount St. Helens transformed volcanic science, the study of environmental resilience, and our perceptions of how to survive on an increasingly dangerous planet.
This was the very informative story not only of the eruption of Mt St Helens, but of all the people around it. Lots of details about the Weyerhaeuser family and how they got their start in the Northwest logging industry. How they came to be on that mountain during that time. Many of the fatalities of that day are described, some in detail, so be aware of that detail if you read this book. I just thought it was good for me to know more about the mountain that blew up on my birthday (only four years early!) I loved hearing about all the details of what the scientists were seeing (and feeling) the months and weeks leading up to the eruption. Even the details of the day of the blast were new to me. I've seen pictures and heard my family's stories, but never details like this. It was a book worth listening to for me.
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