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Giantess Geyser is a fountain-type geyser in the
Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. It
is known for its violent and infrequent eruptions of multiple water
bursts that reach between 100 to 200 feet (30 to 61 m) high.
Eruptions generally occur 2-6 times a year. The surrounding area
may shake from underground steam explosions just before the initial
water and/or steam eruptions. Eruptions may occur twice hourly,
experience a tremendous steam phase, and continue activity for 4-48
hours [1].
History
Giantess Geyser was one of the seven geysers named during the Washburn–Langford–Doane
Expedition to the park region in 1870[3]. Walter
Trumbull, a member of the expedition described Giantess in his
diary:
One of the most remarkable geysers was "The Giantess."
for yards around the ground rose gradually to its crater, but
immediately about it was no formation rising above the surface, as
was the case with all the other geysers which we saw in active
operation. When quiet, it was a clear, beautiful pool, caught in a
subsilica urn, or vase, with a hollow, bottomless stem, through
which the steam came bubbling, just like the effervescence of
champagne from the bottom of a long, hollow-necked glass. The mouth
of the vase, represented by the surface, was twenty feet by thirty;
and the neck, fifty feet below, was fifteen feet by ten. The water,
at times, retired to the level of the neck, or vent, and at other
times rose nearly to the surface. when in action, "The Giantess"
became a fountain with five jets, shooting the spray to a height of
two hundred feet. At the surface the largest jet was about two feet
in diameter, and it kept in solid column for more than a hundred
and fifty feet before breaking into drops and spray. It burst forth
just before sunset, and the last rays of light gave prismatic tints
to the glistening drops, when, having reached their utmost
altitude, they trembled at their coming fall. The clouds of steam,
which in this, as in all other instances, accompanied the boiling
water, became a golden fleece lit up by wreaths of rainbows. Though
inferior to "The Giant" in immensity of volume, and perhaps in
grandeur, "the Giantess" was by far the most beautiful sight we saw
in the geyser basin.
– Walter Trumbull,
September 18, 1870[4]
Nathaniel P. Langford in his
Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and
Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870 described the Giantess
thus:
Near by is situated the "Giantess," the largest of all
the geysers we saw in eruption. Ascending a gentle slope for a
distance of sixty yards we came to a sink or well of an irregular
oval shape, fifteen by twenty feet across, into which we could see
to the depth of fifty feet or more, but could discover no water,
though we could distinctly hear it gurgling and boiling at a
fearful rate afar down this vertical cavern. Suddenly it commenced
spluttering and rising with incredible rapidity, causing a general
stampede among our company, who all moved around to the windward
side of the geyser. When the water had risen within about
twenty-five feet of the surface, it became stationary, and we
returned to look down upon the foaming water, which occasionally
emitted hot jets nearly to the mouth of the orifice. As if tired of
this sport the water began to ascend at the rate of five feet in a
second, and when near the top it was expelled with terrific
momentum in a column the full size of the immense aperture to a
height of sixty feet. The column remained at this height for the
space of about a minute, when from the apex of this vast aqueous
mass five lesser jets or round columns of water varying in size
from six to fifteen inches in diameter shot up into the atmosphere
to the amazing height of two hundred and fifty feet. This was
without exception the most magnificent phenomenon I ever beheld. We
were standing on the side of the geyser exposed to the sun, whose
sparkling rays filled the ponderous column with what appeared to be
the clippings of a thousand rainbows. These prismatic illusions
disappeared, only to be succeeded by myriads of others which
continually fluttered and sparkled through the spray during the
twenty minutes the eruption lasted. These lesser jets, thrown so
much higher than the main column and shooting through it, doubtless
proceed from auxiliary pipes leading into the principal orifice
near the bottom, where the explosive force is greater. The minute
globules into which the spent column was diffused when falling
sparkled like a shower of diamonds, and around every shadow
produced by the column of steam hiding the sun was the halo so
often represented in paintings as encircling the head of the
Savior. We unhesitatingly agreed that this was the greatest wonder
of our trip.
– Nathaniel P. Langford,
1905[5]
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Images of Giantess Geyser |
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Original Thomas
Moran illustration from Langford's The Wonders of the
Yellowstone, 1871 [6]
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Giantess erupting, 1883 William Henry Jackson
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Giantess Geyser terraces, 1977
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