[Geysers] Grotto discharge

[Moose, Allan E.]

I have some thoughts on Scott's back of the envelop calculation below.
It seems (to me)  plausible that a Grotto marathon removes water from
the interstices below Giant and its associated geysers. Because water is
an effective absorber of heat (that's why it's used in car radiators)
and air isn't, the result is that the rocks around the interstices will
increase significantly in temperature. (Think of what happens to your
car when a radiator hose breaks.) Thus, when water fills in the voids
after Grotto ends, there is more energy available for the recovery hot
period and/or a Giant eruption.
 
Now, I have a question: Is the data available to do a linear regression
on the length of Grotto marathons and the time from Grotto's shut down
to the recovery hot period?
 
 
Allan Moose
 
 
"Science is just organized curiosity"
(Donald Kroodsma)
  

________________________________

From: geysers-bounces at wwc.edu [mailto:geysers-bounces at wwc.edu] On Behalf
Of TSBryan at aol.com
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 4:04 PM
To: geysers at wwc.edu
Subject: [Geysers] Grotto discharge


An idle thought that likely is nothing more than that. But the other day
Ralph Taylor wondered about the discharge volume of Grotto Geyser.
Looking at Marler's Inventory, Marler cites a value of 670 gallons per
minute -- that strikes me as being precise enough as to have been
determined by actual measurement.
 
OK, so... do some multiplication and you find that a 33-34 hour long
Grotto marathon -- about as long as they ever can be -- will discharge
something around 1,000,000 gallons. And of course, the commonly-cited
value of discharge during a Giant eruption is 1,000,000 gallons.
 
So, Grotto has a long marathon, discharging 1,000,000 gallons from the
entire Grotto-Giant system. That volume is regained during the hours
leading up to Giant's recovery hot period, which as we know frequently
results in a Giant eruption. So...
 
 
... now you carry the thought onward.
 
Scott Bryan
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20060830/f93c665e/attachment.html>