Giantess Big boils Re: [Geysers] Geyser Report 8/6

[David Schwarz]

   That depends on whether you mean big boils or Big Boils.  In years I
spent in Yellowstone, on any given day, big boils (1-3ish feet) can be
pretty frequent.  I've had days when it seemed like every time I turned
around, Giantess was having a multi-foot boil.  Conventional wisdom says
that it's at least as important where the boils are as how big they are.
Boils on the rim closest to the boardwalk that pour water over the edge are
supposed to be good.  The one eruption I saw up close came out of a series
of rim boils that lasted at least a couple of hours, and not all of which
were particularly big.

   All eruptions of Giantess begin with an event called the Big Boil, a
doming, sustained boil 3-6 feet high, accompanied by thumps, that leads
directly into a series of whole-pool surges that pour water off of the
platform in all directions.  It's a bit like a very compressed version of
the start of an eruption of Great Fountain.  At least in the case of the
eruption I saw, the Big Boil was sudden.  The pool was fairly quiet, then
there was a boil with so much steam that we could only hear it, but it
sounded big.  Then there were a very few seconds of quiet steaminess, and
then there was an unmistakably huge boil, followed rapidly by thumps and
whole-pool surging.

David Schwarz

On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 3:22 PM, James Graber <jgra at loc.gov> wrote:

> Hi,
> I asked some similar questions earlier, but no one responded.
> How often does Giantess have big boils?
> How tall are they, approximately?
> Do big boils have any relation to Giantess actually erupting?
> TIA.
> Jim Graber
>
> >>> Ben Hoppe <ben.hoppe at gmail.com> 8/7/2009 1:04 AM >>>
> All times, unless otherwise noted, are from Thursday, August 6.
>
> Today was one of those days where you go through about every bit of
> summer weather throughout a day. I got out into the Basin at about
> 0930, and decided to sit at Giantess. From 0932-0937, it had big boils
> about every 50 seconds. The sky was blue, hardly a cloud in the sky,
> and no wind until 0940. After 0940, the boils became much more sparse.
> It was very windy this afternoon when I went to Lower Geyser Basin to
> watch Fountain, and by 1500 or so it was ready to storm, and storm it
> did. There was thunder, some lightning, and plenty of rain. By 1900,
> the storm was gone, and the sun was shining. There was a beautiful
> sunset tonight, which I was able to view from various places on
> Firehole Lake Drive.
>
> I was going to go out onto Geyser Hill last night at about 2315 to
> wait for the overnight Beehive. However, I only got to the porch of
> the Lodge because of the huge lightning storm. As it came closer, I
> retreated back to the dorm (about 2330 or so). After the rain had
> passed, I went up to the hill, and was up there by 0015, at which time
> Beehive was dead. Go figure. I heard someone say that it was 2346 last
> night, I will wait for Ralph's data to verify that. The storm was at
> its peak right about that time. Since I was on the hill since 0930
> this morning, I just never moved from the hill, and saw Beehive's
> Indicator at 1129, and Beehive started at 1146. The wind shifted
> multiple times, and every time it was directly at me. I got thoroughly
> drenched, as the large crowd that was there would not really allow me
> to move ways that would have aided my attempts to stay at least
> somewhat dry.
>
> I then went out to Fountain, and managed a nice short wait for an
> erupted at 1331 (d=32m). On the way back, I was showing my co-workers
> around Firehole Lake Drive, and we came across Pink Cone in eruption.
> Lynn was at Gemini and said it started at 1355. I went back for the
> post storm Fountain tonight. It was not erupting when I was at
> Celestine, but when I got to the Paint Pots there was a large steam
> cloud - Fountain 1922ns. It ended at 1957. Morning's Thief had
> eruptions with each of the Fountain eruptions I saw. As a side note,
> Thief did not erupt yesterday (8/5) with the evening eruption of
> Fountain that I saw.
>
> Other times from the day that I have in my book:
> Oblong 0620ie, 0941, 1809
> Churn 0700ns
> Rift 0548ie
> Castle 0806 major
> Daisy 0617, 1021, 1225
> Riverside 0850ie, 2034ie
> Plume 0820, 0921, 1015, 1108, 1158, 1803
> Depression 0931ie, 2038ie
> Little Cub intervals seemed to be right around 40 minutes today
> Grand 1055, 1754 (notice the 6h59m interval)
> Great Fountain 1124
> Grotto 2034ie
>
> Hopefully the weather tonight is a little nicer for trying to catch a
> Beehive. As of 2000, it was already cooler tonight than it was last
> night/this morning at 0030. As long as there is no lightning, I will
> be at Beehive.
>
> -Ben Hoppe
>
> --
> I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ
> lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son
> of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20
> _______________________________________________
> Geysers mailing list
> Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> 
>
> _______________________________________________
> Geysers mailing list
> Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> 
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20090807/3e427f62/attachment.html>