Eruption. Apparently Michael Crichton had a pet-project he was working on and his widow found an author to finish it…James Patterson.

I never read any James Patterson, but it does have a feel like a lot of Michael Crichton books I loved like Jurassic Park or Andromeda Strain…building up “how the hell could we let this happen” with entirely plausible scenarios and science with only enough fantasy to make it work.