[Geysers] A couple of 8/6 Giant details...

[Tara Cross]

I'll let Paul describe the hot period activity at Giant leading up (and I 
use that term loosely; there was certainly no discernable progression of 
events) to the August 6 eruption.  However, Steve Robinson asked me to post 
a few details about the eruption hot period.

During the first 3 minutes, Mastiff boiled 1-3 feet.  According to Steve and 
Kitt (sometimes it pays to be an Oblophile!), the height fluctuated a lot 
during that time, up and down very quickly, though some of the 3-foot 
boiling was also wide.  Then Mastiff went flat.  During minutes 5-7, Mastiff 
was anywhere from flat to 1 foot.  7.5 minutes into the hot period, Mastiff 
began to boil again.  Just as Steve was about to make his 8-minute update, 
Mastiff very suddenly surged to 4-5 feet, and a few seconds later it had a 
huge surge to the height of the cone.  Approximately 1 minute later, it went 
into full eruption to about 30 feet.  As Mastiff was surging, Steve noted 
that Cave was erupting to about 1 foot.  He did not see any sizeable 
activity from Turtle.

Needless to say, for someone who was roused from bed by the hot period 
(sleeping in after getting very little sleep the previous night waiting for 
F&M), there was nothing to get excited, or even anxious, about for over 
SEVEN minutes.  I have probably heard Steve call 30-40 hot periods this year 
and this one was no different from any other 8-10 minute hot period he had 
called in May, June, or July.  (That includes the many other post-marathon 
hot periods called--if anything, this one sounded WEAKER than several that I 
had seen in the weeks preceding the eruption.)

So the "Mastiff to the height of the cone!" call was a real jolt.  At the 
time, I assumed that I must have missed some intervening calls.

Nope.

As I raced up the Castle Hill, I realized that Giant probably wasn't going 
to wait the 90 seconds I needed to get from Castle to in view on the bike 
path, so I ditched my bike and sprinted towards Crested Pool to get a view 
of the start, which was called just barely before I came into view.  As I 
screamed "Turn around!!!" to the bewildered visitors looking at Castle, 
Giant's massive, white column lifted high into the air.  My 
carefully-pondered height estimate is 220 feet.  Once the initial steam had 
cleared, I could easily see the narrow needle of water from Catfish poking 
out at an angle from the side of Giant's column, between 1/4 and 1/3 of the 
way up.

Thanks to the wind direction, those in the immediate vicinity of Giant got a 
dousing shower from the initial surge.  I wish I could have been closer, of 
course, but I rank the sight of that completely white, utterly monstrous 
water column among the most beautiful things I have ever seen--in 
Yellowstone or anywhere else.  It was by far the most massive Giant start I 
have ever seen, both height and width.

Steve called dozens of hot periods in April, May, June, and July.  The first 
hot period he sees in August, Giant erupts.  Go figure.  Thanks for all the 
calls, Steve.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com