[Geysers] Wildflowers During Giant's Dormancy?

[David Schwarz]

   Re. the wildflowers and grasses, I can distinctly remember grass growing
in some of the cracks on Giant's platform as late as the mid 1990s
(somewhere in the '93-'95 range).  Although it was erupting a couple of
times per year by then, apparently even a season or two of no activity was
enough.

David

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 10:39 PM, Lynn Stephens <lstephens2006 at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  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_______________________________________________
> > Geysers mailing list
> > Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> > 
>
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>
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