[Geysers] Geyser report August 21

[TSBryan at aol.com]

Description of two special events first, then some miscellany.

Special Event #1 -- Fan and Mortar, as some have already heard by phone, 
erupted at 09:44, an interval of only 1d 15h 56m. What happened was this. Upon 
arrival at Old Faithful I learned that "everything" had already gone. Well, so we 
didn't know about Artemisia and there was feeling that maybe Atomizer was in 
the eruptive part of its cycle. So I headed there. Artemisia was down about 1 
foot (later learned it had gone around 6:15) and I saw nothing from Atomizer 
after 20 minutes or so. So I headed back toward Morning Glory.

There I met a gazer (name unknown) and moments later Kitt, Thomas and Kevin 
Barger. As we chatted, I realized that that really was a splash I saw in Fan's 
Main Vent and also that not only was Bottom Vent splashing, but that its 
runoff was wet. So I made the call. The sequence was as follows (if anybody wants 
all the details about Bottom VEnt, the Bargers and now Tara have the times -- 
Bottom was on the great majority of the time from before 08:37 until after 
River came on the second time):
08:37 Main Vent splashing and Bottom Vent active
08:38 River Vent on
08:49 River Vent off. We do not know if this was the first or a later pause. 
Note that Main Vent continued splashing and Bottom Vent continued erupting 
while River was on -- it was never strong. During the pause there were some very 
big splashes by Main Vent, and sizeable wisps of steam ver visible rising from 
East Vent.
09:11 River Vent on, 09:14 Gold Vent on, seconds later Angle Vent on.
etc. Fan's water level remained good throughout the next 22 minutes
09:33 start of Fan Vent lock; we were tempted to call it out 2 or 3 minutes 
earlier, but at this time it was obvious. Note that the lock lasted over 11 
minutes, perhaps a record.
09:43 Frying Pan finally on
09:44 Fan and Mortar eruption. The eruption actually began with massive 
bursting from Main Vent, maybe 4 or 5 times many feet high before a last such burst 
was joined by East Vent. As has been happening, the first 2+ minutes was 
essentially Fan-only. Although there was some help by wind, Fan went _way_ beyond 
the boardwalk.

I wasn't there for the Thursday eruption, but those who were say that today's 
sequence of events was essentially a carbon copy of that. I don't have the 
interval list for 2003 there, but the shortest recorded interval in 2001 was 2d 
6h 43m and the shortest in 2002 was 2d 12h 15m.

Special Event #2 -- Having used up the UGB, several of us headed to the LGB. 
Once there we learned that Fountain had erupted at 09:15 v.r. (it turns out 
that Fountain was also in the logbook at 09:40 i.e., v.r.), but the water level 
was so very high that we determined to stick it out. Didn't have to wait long. 
Fountain started at 11:47, an interval of just 2h 32m. And the duration was 
barely longer than 10 minutes. We wondered if it might be going into wild phase 
but the eruption thoroughly quit and the water level dropped, so we left. But 
I had to know. I headed back there 2 hours later and (with Barry Leedy) found 
Fountain in wild phase (13:47 i.e.).

Other stuff--
Green Spring is evidently still active, evidence that it erupted last night. 
However, a marker placed at about 07:30 today was still there at 14:15.
Grand interval of 6h 22m, 1 burst.
Riverside interval of 6h 33m.
Grotto marathon of last evening ended at11_30 to 11:40 this morning. Three 
hours later, at 14:32 was a Giant Hot Period, D about 8 3/4 minutes, India 90% 
covered but nothing particularly strong in either Mastiff or Giant.
Lion interval from initial to #2 of 96 minutes.
Early, Pink Cone was on schedule being i.e. at 07:05
Later, my luck continued with Labial at 10:50.

Scott Bryan
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