[Geysers] Mastiff eruption again - 4/29/06

[Matthew McLean]

Hello again,

Mastiff erupted again this afternoon.  Once again, Giant did not follow.  
Here is the story . . .

Another Grotto Marathon (We must be at something like 10 in a row at this 
point) ended sometime this morning (I want to say I heard it called sometime 
around 10:30).

When I arrived after work (about 1530) Bijou had just restarted for the 
first time since the end of the Marathon after a decent fill in Mastiff.  
This was followed by a low fill, another somewhat decent fill, slow sluggish 
fill, and finally the fill that led to the Hot Period.

At 1621 Giant started showing some seriously heavy vertical surging (pouring 
water out the front of the cone) Mastiff started splashing and we realized 
it was filling fast.  As it reached near overflow, feather started to 
overflow as well and someone called Oblong.  Within seconds Feather and 
Feather Satellite were on and soon joined by the Southwest Vents and Rust 
(overflow from Turtle but no splashing).

Over the next three minutes Mastiff overflowed heavily and at times surged 
to the height of the cone.  When Mastiff's left/front pool stopped at 3 
minutes, the right/back vent started surging 4 to 6 feet (Andrew Bunning 
mentioned that he did not think he had seen this before and David Goldberg 
upon hearing about it though it sounded a little unusual, too)

Soon the front/left pool began boiling again and there was 1 foot splashing 
out of the vent to the right and behind Catfish.  Over the next minute 
Mastiff built in size until it was twice the height of the cone (back vent 
vertical, front vent to the left with water landing behind Bijou).  This 
lasted for about 15 seconds - then it stopped and Mastiff drained 
immediately (I mean that it was 5 second from full height to empty crater). 
Bijou came back on and feather quickly stopped.

Within seconds Mastiff began to refill and remained about a foot and a half 
below overflow for about 2 minutes.  When it finally did drain, Bijou went 
into a violent steam phase and a small vent on the front of its mound (just 
to the left of Catfish) erupted to a foot for about 5 seconds (something I 
have never seen before).  After a few minutes Feather went into a series of 
attempts to try and restart but never made it.  Posthole, Posthole 
Satellite, and Slit all made post Hot Period appearances.

Total Hot Period duration approximately 6 minutes.

That is all for now, but you know where I am going to be tomorrow morning!!

-Matthew