[Geysers] Geyser report August 24

[TSBryan at aol.com]

This was a chilly, very windy day, so I spent little time in the Firehole 
Basins. Before tht, I visited Norris to do some miscellaneous double-checks on 
things. Not much to report there, either, but this:

Steamboat was the weakest I've seen this year. The action was almost entirely 
south vent, and then brief and never more than about half as high as the 
background trees (as viewed from the lower platform).

Echinus, which some rumors have going as long as several days between 
eruptions, was overflowing a considerable volume but only barely bubbling.

Mystic Spring is still active.

Since I was last there, the water level in Yellow Funnel has risen 3 or 4 f 
(or more) feet, and some muddy brown splashes were several feet high. With 
that, however, things that normally are clear water springs (clear in Norris 
terms, that is) were clear today. This includes Mud Spring, the Hydrophane Springs, 
Porkchop and etc. In other words, definitely  o sign of any disturbances.

In Porcelain Basin, the _only_  geyser I can identify by name that saw erupt 
was Guardian. The only.

Bigger news, maybe -- although it was chilly (probably only in the low-40s; 
it was 29 in West Y an 1 1/2 hours earlier) -- I could see four decent-sized 
steam clouds rising from the unnamed therma area west of Norris. The one 
farthest north -- more or less where the explosive mud pots formed in the early 1980s 
and, therefore, near the site of the former(?) most significant geyser there 
-- was by far the largest and distinctly intermittent. So methinks something 
is going on there.

In the UGB, it tells little but the marker left at Green Spring on Saturday 
morning (and still in place that afternoon) is gone.

Penta had a steam phase eruption during a system deep drain. This one had the 
main vent almost nothing but steam while the smaller vents around the cone 
splashes 1 to 2 feet high and put off considerable runoff. he eruption started 
at 09:54. It ended at 10:17, less than 1 minute after Sawmill started playing 
from a very low pool. About 1 1/2 hours later, at 11:43, Uncertain erupted.

Oblong was at 10:36 and had to be the weakest Oblong I can remember. Strong 
wind, yes, but it certainly got no higher than 10 feet and had a duration of 
less than 5 minutes.

The thing across the river from Oblong is still erupting.

After the previous short intervals, Fan and Mortar had not gone as of about 
13:00 today, meaning an interval of 3d 3h and counting. Giant hasn't gone, 
either.

In the LGB, I saw almost nothing. But I can say that Fountain's wild phase 
came to an end at some time between late Saturday and today -- I didn't check to 
see if the end of the wild phase is known. Today at about 09:00 Fountain's 
pool was extremely low, with water barely visible from the overlook (same low 
level in Morning). Water in the small catch basins near the boardwalk was stone 
cold at that time. I therefore suspect that there was no eruption between then 
and when I saw it in eruption at 13:28.

Scott Bryan
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