[Geysers] GIANT May 24 @ 0532

[Michael Goldberg]

Here is a summary, based on my notes and Graham Meech's radio calls of the 
eruption hot period.  Some of the exact minutes are probably wrong:

Starting in the morning of May 22, Grotto had difficulty erupting.  It 
appeard to finish a relatively short (15 hours?) marathon around 0800-0900 
and then failed to erupt with Grotto Fountain at 2300.  It did not go 
again until 0604 on May 23, for a quiet period of at least 21 hours. 
That eruption lasted all of 35 minutes, and the one at 1352 lasted less 
than an hour.

The next Grotto was delayed by high water in Spa and activity from South 
Grotto Fountain.  It began shortly before 2300 and quit between midnight 
and 0030.  Another eruption began soon afterward (0344?) and quit sometime 
during Giant two hours later.

Meanwhile, Giant had hourly activity starting with the hot period at 1929 
on May 22.  These were mostly weak hot periods with <4 minute durations 
and little overflow from Mastiff even if Feather Satellite joined in. 
With one exception (1416 May 23) Giant did not have any meaningful 
surging.  The only other hot period where Mastiff surged at all came six 
hours later, and nine hours before Giant erupted.

But starting with bathtubs at ~0100 and 0152 on May 23, there was 
vigorous "depth charging" in Mastiff and wild jetting in Giant between 
each event.  Furthermore, Bijou always resumed with powerful steam-roaring 
at the end of each event, no matter how weak.  There was clearly an 
abundance of energy under the platform.

The eruption hot period began at 0522.  Mastiff surged to some extent 
(hidden by the steam of a 20-degree morning) but not nearly enough to 
cover India with overflow.  Mastiff dropped shortly after the 6-minute 
mark, and Feather+Satellite quit after a duration of 7m20s.  They 
restarted strongly within 20 seconds, and Giant began heaving water into 
the cone.  This grew in strength over the next two minutes until the 
full eruption was unleashed.

Important points:

Aside from the eruption itself, no hot period lasted more than 6 minutes,
only one had a (weak) restart, and Mastiff never surged above 3 feet.

The eruption hot period had limited activity from Mastiff as well.  In 
fact, Giant was rather quiet to, up until the surges that initiated the 
eruption.


It's nice to thear that Giant has recovered nicely already.  I imagine a 
lot of people are hoping its next interval is close to 4d 5h...

Michael Goldberg
mikeg at math.jhu.edu

>
> I am sure that others will have many more details, but the VC just 
> confirmed that the large steam cloud on the webcam this morning was 
> indeed Giant, starting at 0532.  Interval 4d17h23m.  That's 5 eruptions 
> in May and plenty of room for another.
>
> --Tara Cross
> fanandmortar at hotmail.com
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