[Geysers] Giant sign confusion

Tara Cross fanandmortar at hotmail.com
Tue Apr 17 18:05:29 PDT 2007


Hi All,
 
I think Mike Keller may have gotten the date wrong in this most recent post:
 

 
 


From: KSCOPE_YNP at peoplepc.comTo: geysers at wwc.eduDate: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 22:08:07 -0600Subject: Re: [Geysers] Giant signs replaced





I replaced the signs at Giant on 4/04.  They had rolled off the slope and were half way between the base of the platform and the cage.
 
MK
 
 
I have copied and pasted various listserv reports on the Giant signs from early April in an attempt to clarify the issue.
 
Mike K posted the following report on April 4:
"Giant does not appear to have erupted since the 3/22 eruption (I may have the date wrong here as I am typing this from memory).  Grotto appeared to be in the early stages of a marathon at 1455, and there was evidence of a recent hot period at Giant."
 
Then on April 5, Matthew McLean posted the following:
 
"Giant - signs still in place.  Platform wet all the way down to India but it appeared that it was quite a way into drying (meaning puddles in the middle of stretches of dry rock).  Bijou on . . ."
 
Mike K's report from April 6 says:
 
"Giant/Grotto-Grotto had just ended a marathon eruption at 1615.  Giant was dead and the signs were still in place.  The marathon recovery hot period started at 2134 and lasted 9m 30s.  Mastiff had several periods of surging up to 3 feet in the first few minutes, but was mostly flat but overflowing heavily for the last 2-3 minutes of the hot period."
 
Mike then reported hot period activity on April 7 and 8, and Paul Strasser speculated on the placement of the signs after the 3/22 eruption, which was done by Katy Duffy according to Carolyn Loren's recent post.  Paul said:
 
"But – the Giant sign had been in a location that IMO would make it very difficult to dislodge in a “normal function” eruption.  And the “danger hot ground” sign was also in a very peculiar place.  
 
Normally, both of these signs are perched on the gently sloping – almost rounded – sinter directly in front of Giant’s cone.  The first huge wash at the start of a Giant eruption is good enough to get both of them tumbling down the slope of the platform.  However, neither sign was anywhere near there.  The Giant sign was in a place that seemed strategically designed to keep it in place – on a “step” in the platform about 6 or 7 feet to the north of its normal position.  Giant’s sign wasn’t simply on this “step” - Its back end was tucked in tightly against the rear of this sinter step.  The huge wash from Giant could easily IMO just flow over the sign rather than moving it – what the first Giant wash does is also lift the sign, not just push it (the signs float, after all).  In addition, the “danger hot ground” sign was even farther to the north, in that area south of the Mastiff overflow area, directly west of the Mastiff sign on a flattish region of the platform.  How many times have you seen a Giant eruption in which the Mastiff sign didn’t move?
 
I understand the Giant sign was moved yesterday back to its typical location on the rounded slope in front of the cone, the place where it’s been for the last several years.  The danger hot ground sign is, I believe, still on that flat ground to the north."
 
 
Based on the information posted to this listserv, Mike K moved the signs on either April 7 or 8, and an eruption MAY HAVE occurred between 3/22 and that time.
 
 
--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com
 

 
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