[Geysers] Wildflowers During Giant's Dormancy?

[Eric Hatfield]

I can remember the platform being quite different in 1982. At that point, there would have been only two eruptions in 1963 and 1978. We have video from then which confirms my 5-year-old's memory.

First, the boardwalk was positioned much closer, at the edge of the "cliff," wasn't raised, and had no railing. The sinter was a darker brownish color, that of deposits which are old and haven't been wet in a long time. Grass grew in the gravelly spots, but certainly not everywhere. If there was grass, then I presume the occasional wildflower must've been there.


________________________________
From: JEFFREY CROSS <jeff.cross at utah.edu>
To: Geyser Observation Reports <geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 1, 2011 11:26 PM
Subject: [Geysers] Wildflowers During Giant's Dormancy?

I recall overhearing once that during the period of Giant Geyser's dormancy from 1959 through the gradual reactivation in the mid-1980s, wildflowers and grasses grew on the Giant platform.  Is this indeed true?

How many other groups of geysers have gone dormant all at once, as the Giant Group did during this period?  I can think of three:

Orion Group, Shoshone Geyser Basin, late 1970s and ongoing
Lower Group, Heart Lake Geyser Basin, between 2008 and 2010 and ongoing
Daisy Group, Upper Geyser Basin, during the 1960s and recovered in the 1970s

Any other areas?

I'd like to include this information in a short article that I am planning to write.

It's an interesting topic, because of the distinct difference between the dormancy of an individual thermal feature and the simultaneous dormancy (I suggest the term "systemic dormancy") of a group of thermal features.  Examples of the latter case seem to occur most frequently (but not exclusively, as the above examples show) as the result of geothermal energy development (ex: Beowawe, Steamboat Springs, Long Valley (?), and too many examples from New Zealand and Iceland).  Examples of the former are numerous and routine.

Jeff Cross
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