[Geysers] Wildflowers During Giant's Dormancy?

[Lynn Stephens]

I can't find any reference in Marler, Martinez or Hutchinson annual reports to wildflowers and grasses growing on Giant's platform.  (I don't have all of Martinez and Hutchinson annual reports, but the ones I checked didn't make any mention of wildflowers and grasses.)
 
Marler listed Bijou as active in his annual reports through 1971.  The Martinez and Hutchinson annual reports for the 1970s and 1980s I checked also listed Bijou as active during those two decades.  Some of the reports include mentions of Catfish and Mastiff as active.  I don't know how you intend to define dormancy of a group of geysers, but activity from Bijou, Catfish, and Mastiff would seem to contradict consideration of the Giant group as dormant from 1959 through the mid-1980s.  I'm also curious as to why you started the period of Giant Geyser's dormancy with 1959 rather than 1955.
 
With respect to the Daisy Group, Marler listed Comet as active even in years Daisy and/or Splendid were not listed as active.  He also sometimes listed Bank, Bonita, and White Pyramid Throne as active.  It could be argued that Bank and White Pyramid Throne are not actually part of the Daisy Group.  However, Marler's experiments with Bonita showed it was definitely connected to Daisy, etc.  Martinez listed Radiator as active in his June 1976 report when Daisy and Splendid were not active.  The Daisy Group also poses additional issues--how do you define "all at once" and how do you define "dormancy"?  For example, Rick discussed the effect of the June 30, 1975 earthquake on the Daisy group in both his 1975 and 1976 annual reports, citing Marie Wolf's extensive observations in 1975.  It appears not all the geysers in the group were impacted "at once" and Rick stated in his 1976 report "Active phases were brief and rare as a continuing after-effect of the M.6.1 earthquake on June 30, 1975."  Do "brief and rare" active phases interrupt the dormancy?
 
Lynn Stephens
 

> From: jeff.cross at utah.edu
> To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 22:26:07 -0600
> 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
> jeff.cross at utah.edu_______________________________________________
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> Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> 
 		 	   		  
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