[Geysers] July 3 Giant details - Part 3

[David Starck]

Some people think we're crazy for sitting around for hours to watch a geyser
go off! Have them read Tara's commentary below! Thanks Tara for bringing the
excitement to those of us who are not yet in the park!

Dave Starck

-----Original Message-----
From: geysers-bounces at wwc.edu [mailto:geysers-bounces at wwc.edu] On Behalf Of
Tara Cross
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 5:02 PM
To: geysers at wwc.edu
Subject: [Geysers] July 3 Giant details - Part 3

A message from Tara Cross <fanandmortar at hotmail.com>


Part 3 - The Eruption


...Let's see, where was I?

Oh, right.  After Bijou paused at 1913, water was seen rising in Mastiff,
this time quite purposefully.  As Mastiff neared overflow the Southwest
Vents began to sputter, and went into full eruption at 1916.19.  Feather
overflowed and tried to start once, then dropped, then started for good at
1916.59.

For nearly a minute, the hot period looked a lot like all of the others;
Feather, Southwest Vents, and Mastiff just at overflow.  Then Mastiff began
to overflow a little more, and Feather Satellite came on 54 seconds after
Feather.  Immediately Mastiff began to boil, mostly a few inches to a foot.

After the 2-minute mark Mastiff's boiling began to widen.  First it could be
seen sizzling along to the left on the back side of the vent, then wide
surges began to push outward and upward to 1, 2, and then 3 feet.  The
surging was wide and sustained to 2-4 feet, and copious overflow began to
pur off of the platform.  Cave's activity progressed from bubbling to
vigorous boiling, increasing in height to about 6 inches by the 3-minute
mark.  Mastiff had continuous boiling to 1-4 feet, then more sustained
surging to 5 feet, accompanied by a huge wave of discharge.  The surging was
so strong that it was almost bursting.

Then Mastiff went flat for about 20 seconds around the 4-minute mark, but
already India was covered.  When boiling resumed, it burst up to 2-3 feet
immediately.  Several shouted out that Cave was erupting, and indeed it was,
sustained to a full 3-4 feet.  Mastiff's boiling was holding at 3-4 feet
high.  Then it pushed upward to 5 feet, then wider, then 6 feet.

With Julie, Kitt, Nellie, and Donna urging Mastiff on, I had to move out to
the main boardwalk to make my calls.  I looked towards Oblong and saw the
procession of gazers arriving breathlessly from Grand, with interested
visitors tagging along to see what all the fuss was about.

Mastiff surging continued to strengthen until it was bursting, with spikes
reaching to the top of the cone and then over the top.  Even with gazers
cheering, Mastiff was so noisy that it could easily be heard.  I glanced at
Bijou and saw it have several blips while Mastiff was still surging (it
later built to full eruption).  For a moment I thought that Mastiff would
start erupting, but the surging died down again.  I looked at my watch in
disbelief--it had been only 6 minutes since the start of Feather.

Mastiff was suddenly very calm, hovering at overflow for 20-30 seconds.
Then, at approximately the 6:30 point in the hot period it quickly dropped
out of sight.  Ordinarily I might have worried that Feather and Feather
Satellite would slow down, but they must have missed the memo that Mastiff
had dropped because they showed no signs of stopping.

Instead, Giant quickly began to have large surges within its cone--first to
one-third of the way up, then two-thirds.  The surges were voluminous and
dumped water out of the cone.  With every surge the excitement in the monkey
cage grew.  When the surges reached the top of the cone, mass hysteria
overtook the assembled throng as inch-high waves of water poured off the
front of the platform.  The geyser wanted OUT.

At about 1925.15, Giant burst up with a thick surge to 30 feet.  I called
"Giant, 1925!"  Then the water disappeared, and I had to say, "...I think."
After a few low bursts, Giant rose again, this time with a sustained surge
that rose upwards and outwards, almost precisely 2 minutes after Mastiff had
dropped.

"GIANT, 1925!!!  GIANT, 1925!!!!!!!"

This time the water held, lifting out of the cone in a massive flood.  The
signs rolled and the column rocketed skyward.  I craned my neck to see the
top spikes, and the water came crashing down in front of us.

On the boardwalk at Old Faithful, Dave Monteith managed to get about half of
the crowd to turn down basin as Giant reached and held its peak height,
estimated at 180 feet.  He said the general consensus among the visitors
was, "What are we doing HERE??"  Dave later commented that when Grand
started at 1937, it was completely dwarfed my Giant, even 12 minutes into
the eruption.

The conditions were not ideal, as the storm clouds that had moved in around
1700 were still covering the sky, but nobody cared.  It sprinkled rain a few
times during the eruption, but it hardly detracted from the joyous
experience.  I was thrilled for the many gazers who were seeing Giant start
for the first time--congratulations to all.

Lynn called Grotto Fountain at 1953, with Grotto starting at 1958.  As
Giant's eruption waned, the setting sun cast light on the clouds on the
western horizon, giving a pale orange-pink glow to the sky.  The wind blew
the spray back and forth along the boardwalk, then directly into the monkey
cage.  Gazers milled about, grinning, cheering, crying, hugging, taking
pictures of each other, and playing in the spray.

As darkness began to set in, we watched the final bursts of the eruption.  I
stopped seeing water at 2109, for a total duration of 104 minutes.

I said it last time, but I'll say it again:  WHAT A GEYSER.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com


_________________________________________________________________
Try Live.com: where your online world comes together - with news, sports,
weather, and much more.
http://www.live.com/getstarted
_______________________________________________
Geysers mailing list
Geysers at wwc.edu
https://mailman.wwc.edu/mailman/listinfo/geysers