Giant Geyser Erupts After Over Five Years

YellowstoneInsider.com ^ | September 28, 2015 | Sean Reichard

[Resettozero]

Some surprising news out of Yellowstone National Park: Giant Geyser, one of its most powerful, erupted early this morning (Monday) around 5:03 a.m. MST. This is all the more amazing because Giant, reportedly the second tallest active geyser in the world behind Steamboat Geyser, has a remarkably spotty eruption record. Indeed, it has several different eruptions, according to the Geyser Observation and Study Association.

Unlike Steamboat, however, Giant Geyser has been known to veer into periods of remarkable activity for much longer periods. For large swaths of 1997 and 1998, Giant Geyser erupted every three to four days, with some gaps. It had a comparable fit of activity between 2006 and 2007

Giant is the central geyser of the Giant Group, which includes Mastiff Geyser and Bijou Geyser. In a “normal function eruption,” only Giant erupts, which means it will usually be shorter in terms of time and plume size, attaining 150 feet. Meanwhile, during a “Mastiff function eruption,” where Mastiff erupts alongside Giant (and sometimes Bijou), making Giant rocket upwards of 250 feet.

These categories are fairly fluid, as seen in more recent eruption sprees like in 1996 and 1997.

Giant Geyser last erupted January 22, 2010 at 12:56 a.m. MST. Today’s moonlit eruption, therefore, marks the first eruption of Giant in over five-and-a-half years.

[Resettozero]

This is yesterday's news but was news to me this morning (Tuesday). Perhaps of some interest to other FReepers and I wanted to share.

There is video at the sourcelink.

[cripplecreek]

Happens to the best of us as we get older.

[SaveFerris]

Sorry, it was my fault. I got four tacos from a 24/7 Jack in the Box about 45 minutes ago. I had to burp.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Global warming. 8<)

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Very interesting video thanks.

The eruption is near the end of the video, and it’s not the right geyser which is focused on through most of the video, it’s to the left of center in the background.

Eruption happens just after 5:00 AM.

5:03 I think.

[Bullish]

I really like my geysers on a more regular basis.

[ETL]

Yellowstone is just the current surface location of a deeply rooted, stationary hot spot. As the North American tectonic plate slowly drifts westward, the location of the volcanic activity drifts eastward. The trail began in Oregon between 15 and 16 million years ago. The past few eruptions have taken place 600-700,000 years apart, with the last one occurring, gulp!, about 630,000 years ago.

Below: yellow circles are the previous locations.

source for map:

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/yellowstone_geo_hist_52.html
_______________________________________________

[a fool in paradise]

Activity or inactivity is caused by global climate change, no doubt.

[ETL]

Tectonic plates, on average, drift about the same rate fingernails grow: about 2 inches/year. That’s roughly 1 mile in 30,000 years.

[sphinx]

In another 50-60 million years, the hot spot should be in Canada and we won’t have to worry about it any more. I can hardly wait.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I had my first volcanic eruption dream Monday morning 21SEP2015. What’s even weirder is on the following Friday afternoon I had a customer who’s son had a dream that morning or earlier in which he was talking to some of his friends who were freaking out majorly about something that seemed to indicate a large event. Once he calmed them down he was about to ask them what had them so shaken up and the alarm clock woke him up.

The last geologically-based dream was almost three years before the Nisqually earthquake that happened on 28FEB2001.

I’d say keep an eye on Jellystone and the volcanoes along the Cascades.

[Jack Hydrazine]

[CommerceComet]

This might be a very simple geological question but does increased earthquake activity always foretell a pending big event? Couldn’t a large number of earthquakes be slowly releasing built-up tensions rather than having a big event which releases built-up tensions all at once?

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Thanks for sharing. Spent a lot of time in “Colter’s Hell” when I was younger. But, don’t remember hearing about, or seeing, Giant geyser.

[katana]

Volcanism and plate tectonics influence climate, not the other way around. They are the internal influences of climate along with ocean currents. Solar activity, meteor and asteroid impacts, and possibly fluxes in radiation from outside the solar system are external influences. And mankind cannot control or influence any of this. We along with all crawling, eating, breathing, procreating, and s@#$$ing life are just temporarily along for the ride.

[SampleMan]

The shift appears to have decreased considerably in the last 10 million years.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The Yellowstone Super Volcano is getting ready to go.

[Resettozero]

Hoping you are wrong.

[Resolute Conservative]

Did someone flush?

[ETL]

Yes, typically lots of earthquake activity in the Yellowstone area, although nearly all very minor. In the past 7 days, for example, there were 29, none greater than 2.1 mag.

Update time = Tue Sep 29 8:00:01 MDT 2015
Here are the earthquakes appearing on this map, most recent at top ...

MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION
y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km

0.5 2015/09/26 12:54:29 44.813N 111.415W 10.4 30 km (18 mi) NW of West Yellowstone, MT

-0.2 2015/09/25 21:17:38 44.784N 111.097W 9.4 14 km ( 8 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT

1.0 2015/09/25 03:13:06 44.753N 111.080W 11.4 10 km ( 6 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

-0.2 2015/09/25 02:03:38 44.759N 111.078W 10.3 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.5 2015/09/25 01:57:35 44.754N 111.073W 11.1 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.6 2015/09/25 01:22:44 44.747N 111.076W 10.4 10 km ( 6 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.2 2015/09/25 01:16:56 44.747N 111.075W 10.6 10 km ( 6 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

1.2 2015/09/25 01:07:42 44.761N 111.079W 12.9 11 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT

1.3 2015/09/25 01:07:31 44.755N 111.083W 12.2 11 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT

1.0 2015/09/25 01:06:42 44.755N 111.075W 11.7 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

1.4 2015/09/25 01:04:09 44.756N 111.081W 11.2 11 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT

1.0 2015/09/25 00:26:27 44.757N 111.076W 11.0 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.8 2015/09/24 23:20:13 44.754N 111.071W 10.9 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

1.6 2015/09/24 23:14:22 44.755N 111.076W 11.6 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.8 2015/09/24 23:08:02 44.757N 111.074W 9.5 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.4 2015/09/24 23:07:22 44.753N 111.084W 10.0 10 km ( 6 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT

1.3 2015/09/24 23:00:19 44.754N 111.078W 11.4 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.9 2015/09/24 22:59:25 44.760N 111.080W 10.9 11 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT

0.8 2015/09/24 22:25:59 44.756N 111.077W 10.5 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.6 2015/09/24 22:25:42 44.752N 111.079W 9.6 10 km ( 6 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.1 2015/09/24 21:52:46 44.757N 111.073W 11.3 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.2 2015/09/24 21:42:58 44.760N 111.076W 11.3 11 km ( 7 mi) NNE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.1 2015/09/24 21:42:19 44.755N 111.079W 10.5 11 km ( 7 mi) N of West Yellowstone, MT

0.2 2015/09/24 18:20:19 44.749N 111.198W 12.1 12 km ( 8 mi) NW of West Yellowstone, MT

1.2 2015/09/23 20:31:45 44.621N 110.577W 5.2 42 km (26 mi) E of West Yellowstone, MT

2.1 2015/09/23 11:28:53 44.461N 110.971W 3.9 25 km (15 mi) SSE of West Yellowstone, MT

1.0 2015/09/23 11:28:14 44.459N 110.968W 4.3 25 km (16 mi) SSE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.3 2015/09/23 04:07:04 44.559N 110.976W 10.1 15 km (10 mi) SE of West Yellowstone, MT

0.6 2015/09/22 09:08:12 44.743N 110.913W 4.8 18 km (11 mi) ENE of West Yellowstone, MT

http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html