[Geysers] Grotto discharge

[jacross]

Why should the post-marathon hot period be large?

-The hot period is *initiated* by boiling in the open part of the plumbing.
-The hot period is *sustained* by boiling in the less porous gravels/fissures 
that surround the open plumbing.

Grotto's marathon shuts down the whole Giant complex for many hours.

If it's been 20-30 hours since the last hot period, the fissures/gravels 
should contain very hot water (circulation is *slow* here and requires 
*time*).

But if it's been only a few hours since the last hot period, the 
fissures/gravels should contain very little excess heat.

A hot period started after a short interval will be wimpy, but one that starts 
after a long interval will be powerful.

Additionally, as David Schwarz mentioned, Bijou's eruption seems to drop the 
pressure in Giant's system, effectively lowering the boiling point and 
preventing energy from accumulating.  So if it's been off for many hours...

Jeff Cross
jacross at lamar.colostate.edu

David Schwarz wrote:

>   So basically, I'm suggesting that marathon recovery gives the system an
>unusually long time to build up water and heat, and that it probably
>actually reaches greater than its typical levels of one or the other, and
>that that somehow make stronger hot periods--and therefore eruptions--more
>likely.