[Geysers] Heart Lake

[Stephen J. Eide]

>From Stephen Eide 8-23-04

Greetings and Salutations:

My Daughter Michelle and I took a two day trip into Heart Lake to watch
geysers.  Our observations were interrupted many times by those
interesting summer thunderstorms others have been talking about so
unfortunately the observation periods are usually 2-3 hours long.
Please keep in mind we have never been in Heart lake before and were
trying to identify the geysers from Scott's book.  After visiting the
lower group and fissure group I can see why it would be useful to visit
with someone who has experience with the area, I hope I didn't
mis-identify any geysers.

Most of our observations were of Rustic, Composite, and that general
group.  P-7 is as close to a perpetual spouter as can be.  For the day
and a half I watched it usually erupted about 1-2 feet high.  I did
record occasional pauses of 3 to 16 seconds with no apparent pattern.
Well, the first two pauses occurred at time of sudden filling of
Composite, but nearly all the later pauses occurred with no change in
Composite so I think this was just a coincidence.  Promethetheus spring
also appeared to be a perpetual spouter, it was splashing 1-2 feet high
every time I climbed up to see it, and it sounded like it was active
whenever I listened for it.  P-12 and P-15 were in steady overflow.
Where Scott lists P-3 there are three holes, one is a hot spring in
continuous overflow and from the mud on the sides of the pool I doubt it
has done anything else for some time.  The other two holes are about in
line with Rustic.  They are both about two feet below overflow and are
continuously splashing one-half to one foot within the hole.

When we arrived on 8-19-04 Rustic erupted at 1948.  I didn't get the
duration but I think it was somewhat less than a minute.  After that
Rustic slowly filled in a rise, pause, rise, pause pattern.  At 2027
Rustic was full with minor overflow.  At this time Composite had some
water in the bottom of the crater, but it began a spasmodic rise, pause,
rise, pause pattern. When it did this, Rustic appeared to drop with each
fill and hold with each pause.  By 2029 Composite was in weak overflow
and Rustic was about an inch below overflow.  At 2031 the overflow on
Composite increased and Rustic dropped again.  At 2032 Rustic rose a
little with no change in Composite, but it dropped again at 2034.
Composite had a period of greater overflow at 2037 followed by a drop
below overflow of about a half inch, but recovered to overflow within a
minute.  At 2043 Composite had a major eruption with both vents active
to hight of about 15 feet and a duration of under a minute.  Rustic
appeared to drop during the eruption, but it was getting dark at the
time so I am not sure.  I left because of darkness.

The next morning I arrived to find Composite in  a continuous eruption
of about one foot, regardless of the water level.  This was punctuated
by periods of higher splashing of 2-5 feet from the fountain vent at
0655, and 0659.  At 0700 the fountain vent increased in hight to about 6
feet with splashes from the cone vent.  This was followed by a drain in
Composite with a quick refilling.  There was another increase in the
splashing on the fountain vent at 0704 and Composite finally turned off
at 0713.  At 0716 Composite again filled to overflow, then dropped about
one inch.  During the time of Composite's action Rustic either stayed at
the same level or dropped.  After 0716 Rustic started to fill and
Composite gradually dropped.  At 0734 Composite again started to fill to
about one inch below overflow with a pause in Rustic.  At 0741 Composite
filled to overflow with a small drop in Rustic to about four inches
below overflow.  At 0748 Composite dropped about one inch, then
refilled.  At 0753 Composite started dropping gradually and Rustic
started to fill. At 0759 Composite refilled and Rustic dropped about a
quarter to half an inch.  After that Rustic rose for two minutes to
about a inch below overflow and finally erupted at 0802.  Composite did
not appear to change levels during the Rustic eruption.  At 0807
Composite had a minor eruption with a complete stop and a drain.
Composite started filling again at 0823 and was in overflow at 0833 with
Rustic four to five inches below overflow.  Composite had a minor at
0847 and after that stayed on with a one foot continuous eruption
regardless of pool level.  This one foot background eruption continued
until 0919  At 0852 the fountain vent had a prior of 3 foot splashing
with 1-2 splashing out of the cone vent.  There was a minor from the
fountain vent at 0859.  At 900 the fountain vent increased to 3-7 feet
with the cone vent to 1-3 feet for less than a minute.  This was
repeated at 0906 with about a foot or two less hights from both the
fountain and cone vents.  There was minor from the fountain vent at 0913
and the one foot background splashing finally stopped at 0919.  During
the time of Composite's activity Rustic gradually dropped.  There was
one more Composite minor at 0922.  After that Rustic gradually filled in
the rise, pause, rise, pause, pattern until 0955 when Rustic erupted.
Composite dropped about one inch during the Rustic eruption.  I then
left the area for shelter.

I returned at 1138 with Composite empty and Rustic about 6-8 inches
below overflow.  Rustic surprised me with an eruption at 1147 from a
lower pool that I had seen before, I think about 4-6 inches below
overflow but I am not sure of that.  At 1208 Composite started to fill
and by 1214 was about an inch below overflow.  Then Rustic started to
fill.  At 1222 Composite dropped about two inches.  Rustic erupted at
1224, I am not sure of the pool level as I was attempting to dig out
gear for a new thunderstorm.  This was my only closed interval of Rustic
without Composite in-between and the interval was 37 minutes  After that
the hail drove me away.

Later Michelle and I visited the Lower group.  Ivory was active with
about a third of the eruptions minors (less vigorous splashing and
hights of 1-2 feet) and about two thirds of the eruptions majors (more
vigorous splashing and hights of 2-3 feet).  I did not see a pattern of
minors leading to majors, all the eruptions were less than a minute and
the intervals were about two minutes.  P-1 (I think, again, I could
mis-identify these features.  If it is important, I took some pictures
for conformation) was basically a continual spouter with continuous run
off.  The run off goes through a hole in the side of the cone to a small
channel, then through a second tunnel before finally running down the
side of the cone.  P-19 was active I think.  The geyser I think was P-19
has a round two foot diameter splash zone with new sinter.  In the
middle of this zone is a oval four inch by 7 inch hole about 1.5 inches
deep.  Slightly off center in this hole is the vent, round and about 1.5
inches in diameter.  We saw one eruption with a hights of about two feet
and a duration of about a minute.  Sorry I'm not more exact, I first
reached for the camera instead of the watch.  We were going to settle
down to time Ivory better but another storm rolled in so we left.

I returned to Rustic at 1720.  Rustic gradually filled to about 2-3
inches below overflow.  Then Composite started to fill in spasmodic
fashion.  Composite had a major as it's initial eruption at 1756, or at
least both vents were involved with hights of 5-7 feet from both vents.
After this it continued with a one foot eruption.  At 1803 the eruption
increases with the fountain vent to 5-8 feet and the cone vent to 3-5
feet.  The one foot background eruption continued.  There were minors at
1810, 1815. 1816, and 1821.  Composite finally shut off at 1826.  During
the time of Composite's activity Rustic gradually dropped.  Composite
had a minor at 1826 and 1859 without the background one foot splashing
and had a major at 1900 with the fountain vent to 15 feet and the cone
to eight feet.  After that the weather moved in, and I moved out.

On the way out we visited the fracture group for only a short time.  P-7
& P-35 were active.  We did not see Glade.  Splurger was quiet when we
arrived and then went into eruption.  Shell geyser was active.  There is
also a intermittent spring above Shell in the same alcove.  About every
minute or two it will start a small waterfall from the top of the alcove
into one of the folds for about ten-fifteen seconds or so.  Two of the
upper vents of the fissure springs were active to 2-4 feet but I am not
sure which ones.  Sorry, ignorance and lack of time.  Hooded spring,
shelf spring, and the features nearby were all boiling several inches
high.  The cone on top of the sinter mound to the west of the fissure
group was active to about half a foot but I was not around enough to
know if this was an eruption or continuous spouting.

Overall, it appeared that if Composite was filling quickly or erupting,
Rustic would gradually drop.  If Rustic was filling, Composite had to be
quiet (although once when Rustic was filling there was a gradual slow
filling of Composite.  This was not the spasmodic fill, pause, fill,
pause pattern associated with Composite eruptions).  Composite did not
appear to have a pattern of minors building to a major.  I saw majors at
the start of Composite activity and at different points during the
Composite active periods.  Composite did go into a series of eruptions
where it would not shut off entirely for periods of thirty minutes or
more.  Majors eruptions from Composite did occur from a full pool.  The
maximum highth of the Majors I saw was about fifteen feet.  As a side
note, the level of water in P-7 was clearly associated with the water
level in Composite but this did not change it's eruptive activity at
all.  I did not see any way to predict when the energy would shift from
Rustic to Composite or vice versa.

I apologize if I have been long-winded.  I'm not sure what data was
important and what was not so I erred on the wordy side.

Stephen Eide