[Geysers] Giant details, 6/6/06

[Tara Cross]

This is part 2 of my report on the 6/6/06 Giant eruption.

After strong steam had been seen from Grotto as late as 2140 on the 5th, gazers were out early on the 6th to see if the marathon was still in progress.  Lynn checked at 0330 before heading to Great Fountain; when she returned, we biked down together at 0530 to find Grotto still chugging away.  I observed the steam cloud at 0640 from a distance, but Andrew B. reported that Grotto was off as of 0653.  That put the estimated duration of the marathon at about 25 1/4 hours.

After a few hours of keeping an eye on the Giant area from Grand, Andrew went down to babysit around 1000.  I joined him shortly after noon.  On my way to Giant, I checked the GIP and found it quite low, almost out of sight.

The first thing I noticed upon arriving at Giant was a sign, attached to the railing of the cage to the right of the existing interpretive sign.  It reads, "Giant Geyser: Last eruption" and has a panel for writing the date (which, at the time, was 31 May 06, 0715).  There were also two brand spanking new signs on the platform--a new "Giant Geyser" sign and a new "Danger Thermal Area" sign.  In the case of the latter, the old sign was so scraped up from all the eruptions that it was almost unreadable.

Andrew and I were soon joined by George and Sue Schroeder and Lynn, and our wait began.  We took turns fielding questions from passing visitors.  There was mixed reaction to the new sign--some were encouraged that it had erupted recently, while others did the usual "dismissive giggle" when they saw that it had been 6 days since the last eruption.  I checked the GIP periodically and it slowly rose, from barely visible at 1215 to easily visible by 1400.  The only water that could be seen on the platform was occasional vertical splashes in Giant, occasional right-to-left spitting in back Mastiff, and a few small splashes from Catfish.  Then around 1430 Andrew saw a blip in Bijou, and when I checked the GIP it was high--by normal standards, not April standards.

As we all slowly baked in the afternoon sun, Mastiff appeared to be holding at a fairly high level, as we could see frequent splashing in the back vent.  While we waited for the 1521 Daisy, Lynn announced that she had gotten bored with her needlepoint, and George and Sue wisely moved to Grotto to get some shade.  We could see the GIP cycling up and down, corresponding to the occasional water in Bijou and Catfish.  At 1650, it had been 10 hours with almost nothing happening at Giant.  Everyone was getting a bit punchy from the boredom and sun exposure by that time, but surely something had to happen soon....

Finally.  Water was barely visible in Mastiff, rising very slowly.  I didn't time how long it took, but it seemed like several minutes.  At first only Andrew could see it, perched atop the railing.  Then I could just barely see the water lapping at the edges from my vantage point on the lower rung of the railing.  Then it rose into partial view, then finally it was visible when standing on the platform.  Gazers milled about, readying packs and getting cameras.  The people at Grotto joined us in the cage.

Mastiff rose to near overflow and Feather began to overflow.  Giant hot period, 1715.  Feather Satellite turned on 15 seconds after Feather and Mastiff overflowed heavily, surging to 1-3 feet in the first minute.  During the next 2 minutes, there were several surges to 4 feet, pushing out a river of overflow that comipletely covered India at the 4-minute mark.  Lynn noted the high water level in Giant, with some nice vertical surging within the cone.

During the 4th minute Mastiff was mostly flat but still overflowing heavily, with some boiling to a maximum of 1 foot.  Then at 5 1/2 minutes Mastiff began to boil again, first to 2-4 feet, then a sudden spike to 8 feet, then back to 2 feet.  After 6 minutes Mastiff was up and down:  flat, 1 foot, then 3, 1, 4, flat.  At 7 1/2 minutes I noticed that the back vent was boiling almost as high as the front vent--both were steady to 1-2 feet.  Then at 8 minutes in, the wide surging began again in Mastiff--2 feet, 4, 5, 6, with copious overflow.

Up until that point, the assembled observers had been very quiet, with only a few comments here and there.  But as I saw the wave of overflow from Mastiff wash across the platform, I said, "Come ON!!"  The crowd chuckled, but quickly joined in as Mastiff surged steadily, then sent a burst to the height of the cone.  Just short of 9 minutes into the hot period, Mastiff was bursting to 10 feet, then 15 feet.

MASTIFF, 1724!!!!

First the front vent shot out at an angle across Bijou, then about 30 seconds later the back vent rose up and both vents were erupting to 20-30 feet.  After a 10-minute duration, Feather shut off and Bijou was roaring loudly.  Mastiff continued to erupt as surging began in Giant's cone.  By that time we were gathering a good crowd of onlookers, including a group that had come down from Grand.  Mastiff erupted for just over 2 minutes before subsiding.  I tried to remind myself of the events of late April, but the cone-filling surges continued to grow in Giant.  About 40 seconds after Mastiff quit, there was a huge spike from Giant to 20 feet, then a brief pause, then an enormous blue-tinted "fuzzball" that filled the entire cone.

GIANT, 1727!!!!

There was only a slight breeze blowing gently to the northeast, and within seconds the cage had been swallowed by a wall of water and steam as the few who had remained there fled to the main boardwalk.  With each successive burst the column rose higher and higher as the water crashed back down in massive sheets.  At its peak the column was about 200 feet high, sparkling in the sunlight.  The height quickly subsided, but the eruption was gorgeous, with sparkling water against a perfect Yellowstone blue sky and a brilliant rainbow--and sometimes double rainbow--in the spray.  As usual, I did not notice when Turtle began to erupt but about 2 minutes into the eruption I saw it bursting to about 3 feet.

As I returned to the platform I realized that I had left my backpack sitting, unzipped, next to the bench.  I found it completely drenched, with a puddle on top of it.  Fortunately nothing was damaged, but it took over 24 hours for it to completely dry out.  Unfortunately for George, when he pulled out his videocamera the lens fell off--he said that is when he knew for sure Giant was going to erupt.  Sue was not sure whether she had taken pictures of Mastiff--all she could remember was that she had been crying.  In fact it was a good 45 minutes into the eruption before she remembered that she had also seen a lovely Beehive earlier in the day and started crying again.

The eruption finally dwindled to its final puffs, and we saw the last water at 90 minutes.  When we left the platform, the new sign read:

Giant Geyser:  Last eruption June 6, 2006, 5:27 pm :-)

Interval 6 days, 10 hours, 12 minutes.


--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com
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