We estimate initial velocity needed to eject blocks to the observed 2 to 4 km and more from the vent by iteratively calculating the points of hypothetical trajectories. Drag influences the range of the blocks but is poorly constrained for irregularly shaped volcanic ballistics because it varies enormously with various combinations of shape, orientation, roughness, and velocity. For ballistics of 25 cm and larger that landed within 3.5 km of the vent, drag coefficients vary between 0.06 and 1.5 for spheres and cubes, and they yield calculated vent velocities of 155 to 840 m/s; smaller and more distal clasts yield values improbably as much as several times higher. Ballistics larger than 10 cm apparently traveled much of their trajectories in a range of very high Reynolds numbers, between 4x10^5 and 1x10^7, where drag on smooth spheres is as low as 0.06. In contrast to previous studies on volcanic ballistics, we infer that with low drag coefficients relatively small ballistic clasts can achieve fairly long range even with moderate ejection velocities.
Many impact craters along the southeast azimuth from the vent are aligned not directly southeastward but more nearly south. This southward deviation is typically 20 to 40 degrees, the maximum deviation, 67 degrees--despite westerly wind that tended to shift trajectories east. A pitched baseball curves in the direction of applied spin (Magnus effect). Thus many projectiles apparently had strong angular velocity about near-vertical axes. The deviant projectiles at Crater Peak apparently acquired clockwise spin (when viewed from above) while being ejected from the vent.
