[Geysers] Giant, Aug. 19 DETAILS

[barger]

Tara,
     I loved the write up.  It felt like I was watching Giant all over 
again.
     I will remember for a long time the effort it took to get cold fingers 
back into gloves, the shock at finding both ice and slush on the boardwalk, 
and my ice encrusted bike that I walked back to the Lower Hams bike rack.
     Go Giant!  (although I hope the next eruption is in the daytime for 
more to see)
                                         Kitt Barger
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tara Cross" <fanandmortar at hotmail.com>
To: <geysers at wwc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 4:51 PM
Subject: [Geysers] Giant, Aug. 19 DETAILS


>A message from Tara Cross <fanandmortar at hotmail.com>
>
> The first radio call I heard upon arrival in the Upper Geyser Basin was a 
> hot period update from Lynn Stephens.  Great, what a way to start the 
> weekend--I'm stuck in an elk jam just north of Biscuit Basin while Giant 
> erupts.  Once I got out of the jam, I was stuck behind an RV giong 25 mph, 
> but before I got desperate enough to pass, the hot period ended.  Whew. 
> Even though the hot period was over, I biked down to Giant to see the 
> aftermath and find out what was happening.  After the long string of 
> mini-marathons, Grotto had not marathoned since the eruption that ended in 
> the early hours of August 17.  When I arrived at Giant and talked with 
> gazers, I was told that there were "weird" things going on in the 
> Giant-Grotto area all day long.  Because I was not there to see it myself, 
> I'm going to include a portion of Scott Bryan's Aug. 18 geyser report:
>
> "Today was a weird day for Grotto. South Grotto Fountain was erupting all 
> morning, playing about every 8 to 10 minutes for 2 minutes or so. 
> Typically, this happened between Indicator Spring fills, which mostly were 
> accompanied by _little_ action in Grotto Fountain (at some fills, G.F. 
> didn't even overflow). Finally came an Indicator fill in which Grotto 
> Fountain began boiling up 1 to 2 feet. Then South Grotto Fountain began to 
> erupt again, but this time it was with Indicator high and Grotto Fountain 
> still acting like it was going to erupt. Then the Central Vents began 
> erupting, strongly. Then Grotto started, slowly. Then Grotto Fountain and 
> Indicator dropped, and then Grotto grew strong. I called the Grotto start 
> as 1148 (14 minutes before the strong Giant hot period). Note that Grotto 
> Fountain did not erupt -- if you're going to call this anything, then it 
> was a South Grotto Fountain-Central Vent start. As we say, weird is good."
>
> As an aside, this behavior had many similarities to what was seen prior to 
> the July 3 Giant eruption.  In that case the South Grotto Fountain 
> eruptions persisted for at least 8 1/2 hours, culminating in an actual 
> eruption of Grotto Fountain and then Grotto.  And of course on July 3, 
> Giant erupted after the first Grotto following this behavior; on August 
> 19, it erupted after the third Grotto.  But I digress.
>
> As for the activity at Giant, the following is also excerpted from Scott's 
> Aug. 18 report.
>
> "0759 -- d = 8m 25s, moderately strong. There was a lot of steam (the 
> boardwalks were still frosty in shaded areas), but Mastiff briefly surged 
> up to 4 or 5 feet.
> 0907 -- very weak, d < 2 minutes.
> ~1005 -- bathtub.
> 1100 -- weak, d = 2m 26s.
> 1202 -- had us all a bit excited, d = 8m 20s. This one did not start real 
> fast, but when Feather Satellite came on things picked up quite a bit. 
> Mastiff was up and down and never more than maybe 3 feet high, but there 
> was a lot of strong vertical surging in Giant, Cave erupted steadily to 2+ 
> feet and etc. There was a pretty good restart at 1213, d ~ 3 1/2 minutes, 
> accompanied by continuing surging in Giant."
>
> K.C. Thomson helped fill in the hot period activity for the afternoon:
>
> 1308 -- no details
> 1530 -- d=5m50s.
> 1634 -- d=2m15s.
>
> Grotto Fountain began normally at 1602, with Grotto at 1613.  Grotto quit 
> at 1754 for a duration of 1h41m.  The next hot period was at 1829--the one 
> that was in progress while I cursed at the elk jam.  It lasted 7m45s and 
> India was abuot 50% covered.  Mastiff did not do a lot of large surging, 
> but it did reach 3-4 feet at one point (based on Lynn's radio calls). 
> Cave bubbled to abuot 3 inches.  One thing that was odd about the hot 
> period was that Bijou came on while Mastiff was still overflowing.  Based 
> on what I was hearing over the radio, Bijou splashed a few times, then 
> stopped, then started again more seriously, before Mastiff dropped. 
> However, Feather quit promptly after that.  There was a Feather restart 
> with a few vertical surges that sent water to the top of the cone, but the 
> surging quickly became angled and never got anyone excited.  (Thank you to 
> Lynn, Kendall Madsen, the Thomsons, the Slivkas, and Rocco Paperiello for 
> all the information.)
>
> The final hot period before dark took place at 2009, and it was so 
> exciting that somebody asked, "Was that even a hot period??"  Feather's 
> duration was all of 1m05s, with the Southwest Vents starting 28 seconds 
> before Feather.  No other vents participated, and Mastiff did not 
> overflow.
>
> Since the sun was setting, some gazers decided to call it quits for the 
> day and I headed in as well, knowing that if I was going to stay any 
> length of time at Giant I needed an actual meal and not just the granola 
> bars I had tossed into my pack.  Oblong was called at 2118ns.  I was still 
> eating when Kitt called the next hot period, which started at 2133.  I 
> made a dash towards Giant, but didn't get very far, as the hot period 
> lasted just 2m.  Feather Satellite came on, but once again Mastiff did not 
> overflow.
>
> I was glad for some breathing room so that I could get prepared to wait at 
> Giant into the night.  It was already getting chilly, so I put on all of 
> my winter layers.  I planned to stay at Giant until the next decent hot 
> period--not so much because I was optimistic about Giant, but because I 
> was curious.  The reports of weird goings-on at Giant had be intrigued, 
> and I didn't feel comfortable leaving Giant unattended until I had seen a 
> relatively strong hot period.
>
> Grotto started at 2156ns, and the next Giant hot period was at 2243. 
> While this one lasted lnoger than the others (5m10s), it expended almost 
> no energy.  Mastiff only overflowed lightly, and the only vents to 
> participate were Feather and the Southwest Vents, which had once again 
> started prior to Feather.  After this, a few more gazers headed in for the 
> night, leaving myself, Kitt Barger, and Tom and Oriana Magnera at Giant.
>
> Kitt had her timing down--she waited about a minute for a huge Rocket 
> major at 2340.  On her way from the Grotto area back to Giant, Kitt 
> noticed that the water level in the GIP was about 4 inches below overflow, 
> but by the time she got back to Giant, Mastiff had dropped out of sight. 
> We surmised that this was a bathtub or footbath at 2345.
>
> At 0010, I got a call on my phone.  It was Suzanne Strasser, who was just 
> arriving at Old Faithful, just 8 hours 26 minutes after leaving 
> Westminster (the trip normally takes them 9 1/2 hours).  I was happy to 
> tell Suzanne that she was safe for the time being due to the bathtub, and 
> that Grotto had just shut off at approximately 0005 for a duration of 
> ~2h10m.  Paul, Suzanne, and Linda hastily unloaded their car, grabbed 
> layers and flashlights, and headed for Giant.
>
> Wanting to save batteries for the hot period, Kitt and I relied on sounds 
> coming from the Giant platform to know what was going on.  As we sat in 
> the darkness, we heard interesting sounds from Bijou.  It had not paused 
> since the bathtub, and was on so strong that we could hear steam mixed 
> with the water.  This persisted until 0045, when Bijou had its first 
> pause.  We looked for water in Mastiff, but Bijou restarted right away.
>
> It had been getting colder and colder, and finally Tom and Oriana decided 
> to head back to their car to warm up.  Linda and Suzanne arrived at Giant 
> in time for the next pause at 0056, but once again we did not see water in 
> Mastiff.  Then at 0107, I noticed that Bijou had stopped again.  As I 
> stood on the railing looking for water in Mastiff, I glanced towards 
> Oblong and saw Paul's light approaching on the boardwalk.
>
> I turned back to Mastiff and the water was quickly rising.  The Southwest 
> Vents were sputtering, and then in full eruption at 0108.  Feather began 
> to overflow, and started at 0110, about 90 seconds after the Southwest 
> Vents.  For nearly 3 minutes, I was worried that this was yet another weak 
> hot period, not even strong enough to allow me to leave Giant for a few 
> hours to get some sleep.  Only Feather and the Southwest Vents were 
> erupting, and Mastiff was seeping a trickle of overflow.  Then, around the 
> 3-minute mark, Mastiff started to push out small waves of overflow, though 
> it remained flat.  Then we noticed that Cave was bubbling to 3-4 inches.
>
> Then someone said they thought Mastiff was dropping.  But Linda said, "No, 
> it's still there--there's more runoff now."  Then, in a matter of seconds, 
> the pace of the hot period picked up.  Feather Satellite came on near the 
> 4-minute mark, and soon Mastiff was boiling steadily.  A dramatic increase 
> in overflow began to envelop the platform with steam, so Paul ran back 
> towards the GIP to get a better flashlight angle.  I saw that Cave was now 
> boiling vigorously to 6-8 inches.  Paul's light revealed that Mastiff's 
> boiling was getting stronger--1, 2, then 3 feet and getting wider.  The 
> runoff got noisy as it poured off the platform.  The next time I looked at 
> Cave it was erupting, first to 2-3 feet, then a full 4 feet in a steady 
> column.  We could hear Mastiff continuing to surge, and I saw water to 5 
> feet at one point.
>
> My initial reaction to all of this was, WHUH????  It was like I was 
> suddenly watching a completely different hot period.  Just a few minutes 
> before, I was afraid that I wouldn't even feel safe leaving Giant for more 
> than an hour or two; now, we were starting to get excited, and Kitt was 
> digging through her pack for her poncho.  I would have found her optimism 
> less understandable if Cave hadn't been erupting higher than I'd ever seen 
> it--it looked like a slightly smaller version of Feather.  But I was still 
> incredulous.  Aside from Cave's activity, I'd seen hot periods like this 
> before, and Giant hadn't erupted on any of them.
>
> "How's India?" I asked as Mastiff's surging returned to 1-2 feet.  Suzanne 
> called back that India was covered.  About then Giant caught our attention 
> with nice water to halfway up the cone.  It was about 7-8 minutes into the 
> hot period, and the platform was so steamy that it was sometimes hard to 
> tell what was going on.  Mastiff appeared to go flat, but I couldn't tell 
> if it was dropping.  Paul, still at his vantage point on the main 
> boardwalk, called out that he thought Mastiff had dropped.  Then Bijou 
> came on strong, and there were huge bursts from Catfish--10-15 feet high. 
> I was starting to believe, but I still expected Feather to be weakening 
> when I pointed my flashlight in that direction.
>
> Instead, through a veil of steam, it seemed to be getting stronger.  Yes, 
> now it was the height of the cone, with the Satellite erupting furiously 
> next to it.  Now I realized that I was in trouble.  I had learned from the 
> July 30 nighttime Giant eruption that in the cool and almost windless 
> night, it's impossible to stay dry.  As the vertical surging began in 
> Giant, Suzanne and I frantically tried to cover ourselves and our packs 
> with ponchos, hearing Kitt and Linda screaming with each surge.  Tom and 
> Oriana had turned around when I started calling the hot period and were 
> now at Giant, helping us cheer it on.  By the time I got my head back out 
> of the poncho again, the surges were over halfway up the cone and dumping 
> water out the front.  "It's gonna GO!!!" Kitt squealed, and there was a 
> general stampede out of the monkey cage and back to the main boardwalk. 
> In what seemed like a matter of seconds, the surging was reaching the top 
> of the cone, then over the top.  Two fat sur
> ges completely filled the cone, and then Giant burst up to 30 feet.
>
> GIANT, 0121!!!!!
>
> Our flashlight beams followed the column up and up and up, and for a few 
> moments we could see the top spikes glittering against the starry sky 
> before huge droplets came cascading back down, enveloping the cage and 
> landing beyond the main boardwalk at the junction of the "T."  Then came 
> the wall of steam, and then the rain.  I was very happy that I had decided 
> to try out my new waterproof boots that night, as being anywhere in the 
> vicinity of Giant meant standing in a steady downpour.  It was even worse 
> when I returned to the cage to feel the power of Giant at close range--in 
> fact, it was so wet there for most of the eruption that I could only stay 
> for a few minutes at a time.  Still, it was well worth standing closer to 
> Giant as the water and steam roared out of its cone and Bijou roared 
> alongside.  Mastiff joined in with steamy bursts of water to 5 feet above 
> its crater rim for a few minutes.
>
> We admired Giant from various angles, but after about 30 minutes we 
> started to notice that the water on the boardwalk was turning to slush 
> under our feet.  Eventually Linda, Tom, and Oriana decided that in the 
> interest of avoiding hypothermia, they should probably head in and get 
> warmed up.  They discovered that the boardwalk was a sheet of ice, so 
> decided to return via the bike path.  Eventually, we could see the 
> crescent moon rising over the hill behind Giant, and soon it was backlit 
> in the pale moonilght as it waned to its final bursts.  The duration was 
> 101 minutes.
>
> Hey, weird is good, right?
>
> --Tara Cross
> fanandmortar at hotmail.com
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