Download PDF Eruption The Untold Story of Mount St Helens Steve Olson 9780393353587 Books
Download PDF Eruption The Untold Story of Mount St Helens Steve Olson 9780393353587 Books
Download As PDF : Eruption The Untold Story of Mount St Helens Steve Olson 9780393353587 Books
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 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.
8 pages of illustrations; 8 mapsDownload PDF Eruption The Untold Story of Mount St Helens Steve Olson 9780393353587 Books
"As far as disaster stories go, it's hard to get much more awe-inspiring than volcanic eruptions, yet I found myself skimming whole sections of "Eruption" despite the subject matter. Instead of delving deeper into the human tragedy, or the science of volcanic eruptions, nearly a third of the book is given to dry, vaguely interesting histories of the forest service and the Weyerhaeuser logging corporation. Having just finished "A Wall of White" (the account of a contemporaneous avalanche disaster in the Sierras, and an absolute page-turner) I expected such a slim volume about an even more dramatic cataclysm to hold me fast from start to finish. It did not, despite the cinematic heights of hubris, ignorance, and bravery its cast of characters display. A missed opportunity."
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Eruption The Untold Story of Mount St Helens Steve Olson 9780393353587 Books Reviews :
Eruption The Untold Story of Mount St Helens Steve Olson 9780393353587 Books Reviews
- "Eruption" by Steve Olson brought back many vivid memories. In 1980 my family and I lived in Yakima, about 80 miles northeast of Mt. St. Helens. That Sunday morning (our 12th wedding anniversary) the blackest cloud I have ever seen descended on our area turning day into night. Most frustrating was the absence of any survival information. Was the ash toxic? What about our outdoor animals? How long would it last? The radio didn't help and there was no 24/7 cable news. For lack of anything else to do, we filled a bath tub with water. House guests from Seattle, a three hour drive away, finally left Monday bypassing the ash cloud in a 7 hour roundabout trip through Portland. I wrote a magazine article about how one of our local hospitals coped with the ash and difficulty of staffers in getting to work. Our only casualty was a Samoyed dog that refused to come into the crowded house at the height of the ash fall. She later developed a severe cough and was diagnosed with silicosis of the lungs from inhaling the ash. She had to be euthanized. Almost 36 years later we are reminded of that day whenever we encounter an ash layer a few inches down when planting a tree or flowers.
- I had a lot of thoughts/emotions throughout this generally awesome book
~Excitement to read it. I visited the remains of Mt. St. Helens when I was 9. I periodically love volcanoes.
~Frustration. Over 50 of the first 139 pages are backstory on the Weyerhaeuser family/company for the past 100 years, and the very in-depth history of the forest service. Both could have been done in 5 or 10 imo)
~Incredulity. The mountain developed a rapidly (and constantly) growing bulge on its side for weeks leading up to the explosion but very few seemed to recognize the severity or significance of this... Olson put it best in regards to lessons learned at Mt. St. Helens "No one will ever again blithely and knowingly watch the side of a volcano bulge out like a balloon ready to pop and expect to outrun the ensuing catastrophe." -p232
~Suspense. Olson took the timeline back and forth, both within the almost 2 months of activity leading up to the eruption and the personal stories of some of those affected by the blast.
~Impatience. Olson took the timeline back and forth A LOT in the first half of the book.
~Suspense (again) and mounting dread. He started referring to certain people in the past tense, and as I had not memorized the list of those who died before reading this the deaths and survivals were genuinely surprising to me.
*giggle*"'It was like going to the land of Mordor,' said one logger." -p203
~Validation. Take that, loggers! Clearly leaving the downed trees where they lay would result in faster recovery/renewal of the scorched surroundings! I kind of wanted to shout at the corporate interests in their haste to "not waste" the trees to rot. Not-at-all-shockingly, "The habitats that have recovered fastest are those that were left in disarray." -237
About halfway through I was also kind of overwhelmed with just pure interest in the story and enjoyment of Olson's writing. I felt that wonderful compulsion to keep reading and ignore everything else to see how it all turns out (spoiler alert, the volcano explodes).
Olson does a great job of creating a compelling narrative around this recent historical event and I really liked the book, learned a lot about volcanoes (now I want to be a volcanologist), and came to care for some of the real people highlighted in the personal stories. He blends political maneuvering, history and a natural disaster, personal stories, conservation hot-topics, and individual family histories and creates a genuinely enjoyable read. I have been talking about this book with my friends and family far more than I expected.
Because I can't just be happy, if I had to give one more very minor complaint (which doesn't really count as a complaint, but more a back-handed compliment) it is that it did not contain more stories about the people who were near the mountain, both the survivors and those who died. Olson does such a fantastic job with most of those he does include that I found myself wanting to know more. Along those same lines, I would have loved to have the end of the book provide more information about those who survived and their lives since. I know not everyone will want to share any of that (I can't begin to imagine how traumatic that was), but as a reader I am sorry Eruption did not include at least footnotes on more of the people it focused on in the earlier parts of the books.
Most impressively, he somehow created a text about a volcano that is both informative and accessible --something that I have recently (today) discovered to be VERY rare.
I received an advance copy of this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaways program. - As far as disaster stories go, it's hard to get much more awe-inspiring than volcanic eruptions, yet I found myself skimming whole sections of "Eruption" despite the subject matter. Instead of delving deeper into the human tragedy, or the science of volcanic eruptions, nearly a third of the book is given to dry, vaguely interesting histories of the forest service and the Weyerhaeuser logging corporation. Having just finished "A Wall of White" (the account of a contemporaneous avalanche disaster in the Sierras, and an absolute page-turner) I expected such a slim volume about an even more dramatic cataclysm to hold me fast from start to finish. It did not, despite the cinematic heights of hubris, ignorance, and bravery its cast of characters display. A missed opportunity.
- This is a very good book. The research is exhaustive, and the author appears to have gone to considerable lengths to talk to survivors, witnesses, scientists, policy makers and others who lived through the event and helped to shape the response. It's been 35 years since the blast, so Mr. Olson seized the opportunity to make sure the story was told.
The book, aside from its dramatic re-telling of the events leading up the blast, and its aftermath, is very relevant for today. It provides insight and perspective on land use and the economic issues surrounding the blast.
If you read the Wikipedia entry on Mount St. Helens, it makes it seem as if government did a lot to protect lives. But this book provides an entirely different accounting and is very critical of the state government's response. It illustrates the tensions between big business and government over access restrictions. He explains -- in a very compelling way -- how the death toll could have been substantially higher had it not been for the timing of the volcano blast. Fundamentally, this is a story about hubris.
You can apply to response to the volcano's threat to response the leadership makes today to all kinds of threats. Climate change, in particular, came to mind.
The land use history and the Washington politics around it foreshadows the strident arguments being made out West today.
The history of Weyerhaeuser at the start of the book runs, perhaps, a bit long but it's easy enough to read quickly through it to get the heart of the story. And the heart of the story is a very, very good read.
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