Eruption (Olson)

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Eruption...then take off on your own:

1. Why does Steve Olson insist that those who died when Mt. St. Helens exploded were not at fault? How did those people end up being left in harm's way? Was any one person to blame? Was it a systemic failure? Or was it simply a fateful chain of events?

2, Talk about the system of "red zones" and "blue Zones." How did they work (or not work)?

3. Why was the growing bulge on the side of Mount St. Helen's not given the significance it deserved? How much did scientists understand and how much was conveyed to the public?

4. How did the long history of the area—the railroad, the logging industry, land grants and public set asides—contribute to the confusion before and devastation during the eruption.

5. Discuss the explosion itself. What suprised you most?

6. How has the eruption of Mount St. Helens altered the scientific understanding of volcanoes, as well as the resilience of nature? 

(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, feel free to use these, online or off, with attribution.)

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