[Geysers] Giant hot period??? 9/20?

[David Schwarz]

   I believe this is consistent with what I saw in early July and the first
two weeks of September.  I'm pretty sure no hot periods had happened by the
time I left based on the presence of grass in cracks on the platform.

   Mastiff has been splashing enough from its back vent to keep water in
its runoff channel, and Giant has been having big, frequent splashes that
pour water out the front of the cone--even more than during some active
years.

   I spent about an hour watching the group one evening a couple of weeks
ago.  Bijou was _almost_ shutting down every 10 minutes or so.  During one
of those slowdowns, I noticed a wetter sound over the usual glunking from
the direction of the Southwest Vents, so I wandered over to that side of
the platform.  The vent we used to call Whistle Vent in the early '90s,
which appears as "SV" (steam vent) in the map in Transactions I, was
sputting to a few inches and had done so enough to build up a small puddle
of water around itself.  It stopped within about 30 seconds.  I never saw
it active otherwise, and I did check whenever I walked by the Giant group.
 I suspect that this is the vent you saw splashing.

   A little background:  In the early 1990s, Whistle Vent was active almost
continuously.  The only time it stopped was during a Grotto marathon, and
it came back on during the marathon recovery.  It put out enough water to
fill a large collecting basin and form a slow, drippy waterfall off the
south side of the platform.

   At the time, it was generally considered a bad thing.

   After the July, 1996 eruption of Giant that started the 1996-1998 (or
1996-2008, depending on how you count) active phase, Whistle was bone dry
every time I checked it--until that one time earlier this month.

   Speculation:  Whistle may be active during times when water levels are
relatively high but no hot periods are occurring.  My impression based on
the type of splashing in Mastiff and Giant this year is that water levels
are higher than I've seen since the onset of dormancy in 2008 (note that I
was out of the park in 2011).  In the early 1990s, water levels were
sometimes high enough that you could see water in Mastiff standing
flat-footed on the old, ground-level boardwalk.  There were no hot periods
except right after the once- or twice-per-year eruptions, though.

David Schwarz

On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 8:52 PM, STEPHEN P BEZORE <sbezore at sbcglobal.net>wrote:

> On Thursday the 20th around 11 AM, my last full day in Yellowstone, I was
> walking past Giant toward Oblong when splashing in Mastiff's front vent
> caught my attention.  As I approached the Platform it was mostly dry.
> There were puddles of water in Mastiff's drainage channel between the
> Rabbit and Mastiff's signs, water from Mastiff on the side of the platform,
> and puddles of water at the foot.  Feather was mostly dry except for two
> small puddles on the right.  A small platform vent behind the SW vents was
> bubbling.  The gravel patches on India appeared to be damp, but since I
> haven't looked at India since Giant became dormant, maybe that's normal.
> There was also a puddle of water next to Turtle.  On a subsequent visit,
> left to right splashing of giant was splashing water out of the front of
> the cone, and on my final visit there was a large puddle of water in front
> of Giant's cone.
>
> Conjecture----The amount of water I saw in Mastiff's runoff channel could
> be entirely due to splashing out of the front vent, but it doesn't explain
> the puddles near Feather.  I suggest that there might have been a hot
> period earlier, the evidence of which mostly dried up, followed by another
> event, without Feather, shortly before I arrived at the scene.  Since there
> were few geyser gazers last week in the park, and even fewer watching
> Giant, anything is possible.
>
> I can only dream that this is the beginning of renewed activity in Giant
> and not a failed one shot attempt for a September eruption.
>
> Steve Bezore
>
>
>
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>
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