[Geysers] The weekend at Giant - Friday

[Paul Strasser]

This is long, and I've divided it into 3 messages.  Suzanne and I were the
only people who were there for everything, from Friday AM to the Giant
eruption.  The activity was so different and so unusual that a more detailed
account might be warranted.  This is Friday's installment.

 

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A fitting summary to the weekend festivities at Giant was a single word I
wrote in my notebook after the 24 min 42 sec hot period at 1047 on Sunday.
I needed to encapsulate the weird behavior, the frustration, the utter
confusion that I - and many other gazers - felt.

 

The word I wrote was "Insane."

 

And a few minutes after I wrote that, things got REALLY interesting.

 

Friday.  After all the news of one or more Giant eruptions in the previous 8
days, I didn't know what to expect early Friday morning.  I biked down and
from the blacktop saw Bijou jetting lustily, and Mastiff depth-charging.  I
figured I'd missed a recent hot period, but the GIP was quite high, filling
the lower back area of its basin.  A small stream of water coming off the
platform from Mastiff at first seemed like the remnants of a hot period, but
after a while I realized that there had been no recent hot period:  The
water was from the constant depth-charging - so strong that the little
collecting pool to the north of Giant's cone stayed full, and from there
flowed west and off the platform.  To show how striking this behavior was,
the only time all day that Bijou was NOT jetting to 12 feet+ was during hot
periods.  And then, about 5.5 hours into a marathon.  So, too, with
Mastiff's surges.

 

Giant had a hot period at 0850, duration 3m 40s.  It was typical, except
that Bijou didn't quit until Mastiff was just below overflow, and at its end
Bijou went into a roaring steam phase that slowly converted to water.
Mastiff resumed its depth charges, and the GIP barely lowered.  I called
Mike K on my cell phone, and he told me he'd be down at OF later that
evening and all day Saturday.  After hearing my account of the activity Mike
said he'd be down in the early afternoon instead.

 

A second hot period occurred at 1123, D 1m 28s.  Even this modest hot period
ended in a Bijou steam phase, and again Mastiff depth-charged. Grotto
started at 1203.  Yet another hot period took place at 1215, an interval of
only 52 minutes, duration 2m 15s.  And as was the mode of the day, Bijou was
in steam phase afterwards.  Additional hot periods took place at 1312, D 3m
14s; 1452, D 1m 5s; and finally at 1610 D 2m.  Bijou was in steam phase
after each of these.

 

Grotto's eruption turned out to be a marathon that took control around 1730,
and Bijou finally slowed down.  Doing quick basin math, we figured that the
recovery hot period would hold off until dawn, assuming Grotto didn't pull a
short - and with what happened on Friday, nothing would be surprising.  

 

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