Introduction

More than their large sizes, the key defining property of Giant HII regions (GHIIRs), as a distinct class of objects, is the supersonic velocity widths of their integrated emissionline profiles (Smith & Weedman 1972; Melnick 1977; Melnick et al. 1987 and references therein). Since supersonic gas motions will rapidly decay due to the formation of strong radiative shocks, the detection of Mach numbers greater than 1 in the nebular gas poses an astrophysically challenging problem.

Melnick (1977) suggested that the ionized gas is made of dense clumps moving in an empty or very tenuous medium, so that the integrated profiles reflect the velocity dispersion of discrete clouds rather than hydrodynamical turbulence. In this model, the relevant time scale for radiative decay of the kinetic energy is the crossing-time of the HII regions which turns out to be comparable to the ages of the ionizing clusters.