[Geysers] Geyser Report: Giant activity, June 22-July 1

[Tara Cross]

This is a summary of events in the Giant-Grotto area for June 22-July 1.  
I've included Oblong as an FYI because of how often Oblong eruptions 
coincided with Giant hot periods.  It got to the point where if someone 
asked me when I was expecting the next Giant hot period, my answer was 
"around the time of the next Oblong."

Giant was being watched from about 0530 to 2100 each day (with one 
exception, marathon recovery hot periods had the decency of occurring during 
daylight hours).  Many of these hot periods were reported by Steve Robinson 
(Thank you, Steve!).  I observed a large number as well.  However on the 
30th and 1st Giant was not being watched quite as closely due to the absence 
of the usual Giant-watchers and a bad case of short-timers on my part.

June 22

1403 Oblong
1423 Giant hot period (d=15m10s) Turtle 4 ft., Mastiff 4 ft. India covered 
Cave 2 ft.
1924ns Oblong
1932 Giant hot period (d=6m54s)

The 1423 hot period has already been described by Scott and Paul.

June 23

0614 Bathtub
0741 Bathtub
0813 Grotto Fountain
0820 Grotto
0900 Giant hot period (d~4m)
1104 Giant hot period (d=8m15s) India 2/3 covered, Mastiff 2 ft.
1218ns Oblong
1541 Oblong

June 24

0747 Giant hot period (d=4m30s)
0929 Giant hot period (d=9m18s) Mastiff 3 ft., India 100
0932 Grotto Fountain
0941 Grotto
1120 Giant hot period (d=2m38s)
1416 Oblong
1418 Giant hot period (d=7m49s) Mastiff 6 in., India 80%
1745 Giant hot period (d=4m25s) Mastiff 3 ft., India 2/3 covered
1920 Giant hot period (d=8m25s) Mastiff 3 ft., Cave 6 in., India covered
1921 Grotto Fountain
1925 Grotto
2058ie Oblong
2111 Giant hot period (d=1m01s)

June 25

0548 Oblong
0555 Giant hot period (d=7m55s) Mastiff flat, India 3/4 covered
0728 Giant hot period (d=2m16s) Mastiff flat, Feather and Southwest vents 
only
0747 South Grotto Fountain
0800 Grotto Fountain
0802 Grotto (marathon, duration approximately 25.5 hours)
0901 Giant hot period (d~4m) weak, no runoff
0934 Rocket major
0951 Oblong
1113 Giant hot period (d=8m01s) Mastiff 3 ft., Cave 6 in., India covered
1430 Giant hot period (d~7+m)
1554 Oblong
1920ns Oblong

June 26

0755 Oblong
~0930 Grotto marathon ended
1255 Oblong
1403 Giant hot period (d=10m27s) Mastiff 3 ft., Turtle 6 ft., Cave 1 ft., 
India covered
1812 Giant hot period (d~3m)
1816 Oblong

The 1403 hot period was interesting.  When I arrived at Giant, I sat down on 
the usual bench to wait.  then I noticed that something on the platform 
looked different.  I finally figured out that all of the water basins in 
front of Giant's cone were either empty or nearly empty, including the one 
Phoenix Vent is in.  It was like something had sucked all of the water off 
of the platform.  I actually took some photos, because I couldn't recall 
seeing this happen in recent memory--keeping in mind, of course, that 25.5 
hours is a LONG marathon.

The hot period itself was pretty typical for strong hot periods this year:  
Mastiff to 3 feet early, flooding India within 4 minutes.  Then mediocre 
boiling for the rest of the hot period.  Cave did indeed start erupting to 
about 1 foot, and then Turtle built into what I would call a full eruption.  
Several others who witnessed the hot period confirmed my height estimate of 
a steady 4-5 feet from Turtle, with one exceptional burst to 6 feet.  Again, 
I took some photos.  The maximum height on Turtle took place at the tail end 
of the hot period.  There was a decent restart from Feather, though it was 
never fully steady and the brief vertical surging in Giant barely reached 
1/3 of the way up the cone.

To view photos of the hot period, use the link below:

http://students.washington.edu/tmc22/June05.html

June 27

0628 Giant hot period (d=4m25s)
0738 Oblong
0853 Giant hot period (d=3m50s) Mastiff 2 ft.
1021 Grotto Fountain
1026 Grotto
1027 Giant hot period (d=8m55s) Mastiff 3 ft., India covered
1253 Giant hot period (d~2m)
1333ie Grotto Fountain
1338 Grotto (marathon, duration unknown)
1424ie Giant hot period (d>5m)
1428 Oblong
1750 Giant hot period (d=8m25s) Mastiff 1 ft., India 2/3 covered
1834 Oblong

June 28

0605 Giant hot period (d=8m55s); marathon recovery, Mastiff did not surge, 
India covered
0918 Oblong
1052 Giant hot period (d=6m15s)
1418 Giant hot period (d=9m12s)
1452ie Grotto Fountain
1459 Grotto
1901ie Oblong
1939ie Giant hot period (d>4m)

A hot period was missed around the time of the 1459 Grotto due to concurrent 
events at Fan and Mortar, and it is likely that another was missed in the 
late afternoon.

June 29

0841 Grotto Fountain
0843 Grotto
0925 Giant hot period (d=8m50s)
1029 Rocket major
1241 Oblong
1554 Grotto Fountain
1558 Grotto
1812 Giant hot period (d=7m05s) Mastiff 6 in., Feather and Southwest vents
2032 Giant hot period (d=2m12s)

Again, Giant was left unattended at times due to events at Fan and Mortar, 
and therefore several hot periods were missed.

June 30

0538ie Giant hot period (d>7 1/2, probably 8-10m) India covered
0842 Grotto Fountain
0846 Grotto
0941ie Oblong
~1155 Giant hot period; not seen, India 3/4 covered
1414 Grotto Fountain
1417 Grotto (marathon, duration approx. 21.25 hours)
1444ie Giant hot period; weak, no overflow
1453 Oblong
1628ie Giant hot period (d>7m) seen from Grand, India 60% covered.  As 
watched through binoculars from Grand, Mastiff was never seen to surge over 
1 foot high.

July 1

0622 Oblong
1040 Oblong
~1130 Grotto marathon ended
1516 Giant hot period (d~8m40s) Mastiff 3 ft., India 3/4 covered
1528 Oblong
1929 Oblong

Did I get lazy for the last two days?  Yeah.  I was completely non-plused by 
the recovery hot period on the 1st.  Mastiff surging lasted a total of maybe 
2 minutes, most of it reaching 6-12 inches.  There was one episode of 
stronger surging that reached a maximum of 3 feet.  Mastiff did not surge 
for the last 3.5 minutes and didn't even put out enough discharge to cover 
India.

General comments:

I got the general sense over the course of my 10-day visit that Giant was 
not really interested in erupting.  As Paul mentioned, there were long 
durations galore, but after the 15m10s hot period on the 22nd, Mastiff never 
surged more than 3 feet in any hot period I was aware of.  I guess I would 
feel a bit better about the energy being on the Giant side of the platform 
if Giant had actually done something interesting in the way of restarts, but 
it just didn't.  With the exception of the restart observed after the strong 
hot period on the 26th, I didn't see any restart activity strong enough to 
merit writing in my notes.

Marathons continued to come frequently.  The behavior I saw emphasized the 
fact that Giant no longer prefers to have its strong hot periods going into 
a Grotto marathon (3 out of 5 of the summer season Giant eruptions in 2004 
occurred at this time).  Rather, the strongest hot periods were marathon 
recovery hot periods, which occurred 3-5 hours after marathons ended.

That's all for Giant.  I do hope it erupts this summer, but something's 
gotta give.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com