[Geysers] Geyser report 17-21 Aug (Bower)

[Gordon Bower]

Apologies for any information repeated here that others have posted to the
listserv the past few days. I haven't checked my email since Monday
evening. I will concentrate mostly on the smaller features less likely to
already have been covered.

Nice to see several familiar faces and a few new ones. I never did figure
out who all the new voices on the radio were, but it is great to see our
hobby alive and well even in the age of electronic monitors on everything.
Was sorry to miss the violin recital in the Inn Friday night - but that is
Lion's fault for having a 94-minute interval.

Old Faithful: its usual self. Intervals mostly in the low 90s. The
shortest I saw was 83, the longest 107. Every duration I timed was just
over 4 minutes.

Geyser Hill:

Little Squirt was seen Wednesday afternoon/evening. Bronze and Silver
responded with low water levels Thursday. The water in Silver remained out
of sight Friday evening. Dome did not erupt.

Plume and South Anemone remain dormant. North Anemone's intervals are 9-10
minutes instead of the 7 that was standard for many years. The longer
interval has previously been mentioned on the listserv, but I don't recall
anyone commenting on how very different the start of the eruption is.
Standing/pulsating water is visible in North Anemone about 3 minutes
before an eruption, with many false fills. The actual eruption begins with
several seconds of sloshing and boiling instead of bursting forth
enthusiastically the instant water is visible. North Anemone has more or
less adopted South Anemone's style of erupting.

Beehive was consistent on 14-16 hour intervals all week. The Indicator was
equally consistently giving 14-16 minutes of warning. I saw nothing from
any of the second etc. indicators. I was surprised to see a 6m02s duration
on Wednesday afternoon. All the Beehives I timed in years past, as well as
the others I saw this week, were just a few seconds one side or the other
of 5 minutes. I was also surprised at how powerful the Indicator is. My
memory is that in the 80s it barely reached the height of Beehive's cone,
and in the 90s was capable of ten feet, maybe fifteen during the first
minute of Beehive's eruption. It now sends a steady stream of water to 20
for almost its entire duration, with occasional droplets over 25. (Yes, I
measured it, and never saw less than 11% at the 200-foot line near
Depression.) It would be interesting to compare photos of the indicator's
vent over the last 20 years and see how its growth from an
impossible-to-see slit to a gaping hole correlates with the increase in
power. That makes the Indicator the #4 active geyser on Geyser Hill
currently, behind only Beehive, Lion, and Aurum.

Depression was usually seen once per day. The one day it was seen twice,
the eruptions were just under 11 hours apart. The other days, the observed
eruptions were remarkably close to 22 hours apart. It *might* really be
very regular at the moment (or it might still be wildly erratic): Ralph,
hopefully, will reveal all in due time.

Lion was more temperamental than I have ever seen it except for the last
few days before a Giantess eruption. Intervals between series varied
wildly. Though the intervals within series tended to be around 90
(initial) and 70(later), these could vary a good ten minutes too. Several
minors were seen even as early as the second eruption of a series. The
'bubblers' on the platform, which sometimes are useful as indicators that
Lion is ready to begin a new series, lied through their teeth this year
and continued to bubble between the first and second eruptions of a
series. Little Cub's daytime intervals were around 50 minutes, and
eruptions continued until at least 2200 in the evening, but stretches of
over an hour without an eruption were observed after sunrise. No eruptions
of North Goggle were reported but I believe it remains active: the runoff
channel is 100% bleached white, and in years past, the orange and brown
started to reappear after 2 or 3 weeks with no eruption.

Aurum couldn't decide if it was summer or not. There were closed intervals
of 4h32m Tuesday and 3h24m Thursday, but several other pairs of eruptions
8-10 hours apart at times when an in-between eruption was unlikely to be
missed by everyone. Plate was regular at 3-4 hours. Sponge, Model (and its
satellite vents) et al remain active but I didn't record details. (No
wisecracks, Tara.) Butterfly Spring minors to 10-ish feet were seen a few
times.

Geyser Hill as a whole is discharging far less water than at any time I've
seen it in many years. (I had similar impressions of several other areas
this week. I was reminded of Robert Fournier's comments ten years ago that
he felt overall activity then was far greater than it had been in the
sixties. Some wild speculations about decade-long cycles of activity
crossed my mind...)

Castle was keeping everyone on their toes. Minors every second day, and
first-major-after-minor intervals anywhere from 13 to 16 hours. If it
managed two majors in a row it settled down to clockwork 13s for the third
and fourth - but it usually didn't make it that far.

Sprinkler is chugging along as usual with intervals in the low to mid 20s.
The small perpetual spouter in Crested Pool's runoff remains active. Tilt
is still drowned, but functioning as an intermittent spring, alternately
acting as a drain for two minutes and pulsating and discharging vigorously
for two minutes.

In the Sawmill group, I saw Sawmill, Sawmill, Sawmill, and more Sawmill,
despite everyone telling me what a great summer it had been for Churn. A
few short Bulgers and Tardys. Old Tardy bone dry every time I walked past
it four days in a row -- I don't recall ever going that long without
seeing an active phase from it.

Grand was doing a fine imitation of Riverside, having modest sized
one-burst eruptions promptly every 6 1/2 hours. (OK, I exaggerate
slightly. I did see one 7h10m interval. I understand I missed both a
2-burst eruption and an interval over 7 1/2.) The tourists have once again
discovered an underground connection between Castle and Grand, thanks to a
bit of luck and the fact that 6 1/2 x 2 = 13.

Wave Spring is no longer waving. Oblong was seen several times, once on an
interval as short as 4 hours. I am sure others will give lots of details
of the many Giant hot periods. Suffice it to say that there were 3 or so
per day with live commentary. The post-marathon hot period Wednesday
evening was particularly good radio drama.

Daisy is making the naturalists earn their pay, bouncing around between
2h15m and 3h15m -- and one outlier 3h50m Thursday evening. Grotto
successfully avoided allowing me to see even one start all week, first
with a 24+ hour marathon and then with intervals down around 5 hours. (The
lack of a bicycle this trip hurt my odds too.)

I am sure there are already scads of F&M posts in your inboxes. Suffice it
to say that I was surprised by a steam cloud in the wrong place at the
wrong time after a 2-day interval, and more surprised to hear of an even
shorter interval just before I left the park this morning.

Artemisia was very cooperative, displaying five consecutive steam clouds
at intervals of 11 1/2 to 14 hours. Saw an Atomizer major 1021IE, water
phase, today (Saturday) from Biscuit Basin. (Note, this was after my last
visit to the VC, so someone please check and put this in the logbook if no
better time is in there already.) Three Jewel cycles were all 7 3/4 to 8
minutes. Two Mustard Spring intervals were around 11 minutes, one duration
3 minutes. Elsewhere at Biscuit, the Silver Globes and the unnamed geysers
north of Mustard appeared fresh and wet but neither did anything in half
an hour of watching. (Nor did Baby Daisy do anything in that half hour.)


At Black Sand, Cliff, Ragged, and Spouter are all about the same as they
were last time I saw them. One eruption of Green Spring is listed in the
logbook - but the only evidence of activity there that I saw was four or
five bodies parked on the boardwalk. The trail junction spouter remains
active, and has expanded the edge of its crater a little more in the last
two years.

In the Lower Basin, Great Fountain had several double intervals over 22
hours, then threw in a 20 to keep us on our toes today. A-0 intervals
26-30 minutes, durations 35-42 seconds. Botryoidal intervals 3m50s-4m50s,
durations 27-32 seconds. The UNNG on Tangled Creek behind White Dome was
seen at least 3 of the last 5 days. Saw eruptions of White Dome, Pink,
Labial, and Narcissus, but have no closed intervals on any of them. At
Firehole Lake, Steady remains weak, Grey Bulger and Young Hopeful are
their usual steady 1- or 2-foot selves, and Artesia appears to be
completely dormant. Many geysers in the Kaleidoscope group are active but
I don't presume to know which is which.

At West Thumb, my parents saw one eruption of Occasional (but did not see
a second; the interval is not the same 25-30 minutes that it was before
the dormancy), and one visitor report of Hillside appeared in the OFVC
logbook.


GRB