[Geysers] Geyser Report, Oct. 21-Nov. 4

[Tara Cross]

A message from Tara Cross <fanandmortar at hotmail.com> 11/4/04

Sorry that this report is long-overdue; I hope people get it in time to have 
some information before coming in for closing weekend.  After 2 weeks of bad 
weather that included snow, wind, clouds, and cold, the last few days have 
been pretty nice and the forecast looks good for the weekend.  So....

Both Big and Little Anemone continue to erupt with occasional duals.

I saw something in the crater of Spume erupting on the 25th.

Plume reactivated on 10/27.  Two intervals that day were around 2 hours.  
Then it was seen at least once a day until 11/1; it has not been seen again 
since then.

Beehive has been, to say the least, difficult to pin down.  It becomes 
difficult to extrapolate a possible "window" when eruptions have not been 
seen for two days.  Add to that an interval range of 10 to possibly over 24 
hours and consistently short Indicators, and I have not seen Beehive erupt 
from the Hill for 3 weeks.  Here are the known eruptions since the 21st:

October 21 @ 1030
October 23 @ 1606ie (Indicator 1601ns)
October 24 @ 1506 (Indicator 1455ie)
October 27 @ 1241ns (possibly no Indicator)
October 28 @ 2219
October 29 @ 1527 (Indicator 1521)
October 30 @ 0919 (Indicator 1915ns)
November 2 @ 1026
November 3 @ 1314ns and 2309ns
November 4 @ 1000ie
Yeah, those last two intervals are definite--one just under 10 hours and one 
just under 11 hours.  The Indicator was not seen prior to any of them, 
though it could have erupted for a short time and been missed.

Castle has been having occasional minors, just enough to keep us confused.

The Sawmill Group has been pretty disappointing this fall.  Though Tardy 
cycles and deep drains are happening, Penta and Uncertain have not been seen 
very much.  I personally sat through 3 deep drain cycles when Uncertain had 
water but failed to erupt.  Oval Pool has been having some eruptions.  Most 
are only 1-2 feet high and come from a 3/4-full pool, but I have seen two 
exceptional eruptions that came from essentailly full pools and had strong 
bursts to up to 6 feet.

Grand's window is still roughly 6-9 hours, with intervals occurring pretty 
much anywhere in that span.  On 10/29, I observed a 31-minute Turban delay, 
followed by West Triplet and Rift.  I gave up at dark; the eruption 
eventually occurred at D6.  Lately, there has been a shift to a lot more 
Grand starts.  There have not been any 3-burst eruptions seen in a while.

Daisy's intervals continue to vary, but most intervals are in the 2h2m-3h 
range.

Oblong has been seen at least once a day and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.  
Closed intervals have been 3h27m, 3h30m, 5h28m, and 6h03m.

Giant....  Where do I begin?  I'll back up as far as 10/29, when Grotto 
ended a marathon sometime in the morning before 0900 and when there had been 
no post-marathon hot period by 1330 we all became very interested.  The hot 
period finally occurred at 1644, d=16m.  It was an extremely strong hot 
period with Mastiff overflowing and surging until the 10m50s mark.  Turtle 
actually erupted after its boiling built to nearly a foot high.  Mastiff 
surging reached 6-8 feet.  Vertical surging in Giant's cone started off good 
but died down.  Observed events after this hot period were as follows:

October 30:

~0851 GHP, d~8m, Mastiff 6-8 ft., India covered (reported by Kendall Madsen)
1015ie Grotto (Rocket major at 1116)
1358 GHP, d=8m30s, Mastiff 2 ft., India barely covered
1538ie Grotto (marathon; Rocket major at 1603)
1619 GHP, d=2m20s, no Mastiff overflow

October 31:

~0900 GHP, not seen; India not covered
1211 GHP, d=3m10s, no Mastiff overflow
1309 Grotto
1400 GHP, d=6m15s, Mastiff 6 inches (ooooh aaaaah), no Feather Satellite
1655 GHP, d~8 1/2m, Mastiff 4 feet

November 1:

1021 GHP, d~10m, Mastiff 6 feet
1204ns Grotto
1521 GHP, d=5m30s, Mastiff 1 foot, India 1/2 covered

November 2:

1201 Grotto
1225 GHP, d=8m50s, Mastiff 5 feet, India covered
1451 GHP, d=3 1/2m, light Mastiff overflow

November 3:

Grotto marathon ended ~1240
1612 GHP, d=9 1/2m, Mastiff 3 feet, India covered

November 4:

1221 GHP, d=4m50s, light Mastiff overflow
1231 Grotto
1342 GHP, d=2m02s, just Southwest Vents and Feather
1514 GHP, d=7m10s, Mastiff 3 feet, Feather Satellite started 4.5 minutes in, 
India 70% covered

All heights for Mastiff are maximums.  Many hot periods that did not have 
tall surging from Mastiff still put out a lot fo discharge.

By the way, I don't think it ever got reported that Link had another 
eruption after October 9, sometime on the 18th or 19th.  Nothing since then, 
though.

Fan and Mortar have erupted twice since the eruption on October 25:  
overnight October 28-29 and again overnight November 1-2, for intervals of 
approximately 3.5 and 4 days.  I found it interesting that no event cycles 
were observed or inferred in the days before either eruption.  This is a 
major change from the pattern that persisted throughout September and 
October of event cycles every 2-6 hours.  I don’t think it is a coincidence 
that intervals suddenly got shorter again.

Artemisia was erupting early morning-late evening for a while and was not 
seen for days.  Then it was seen at 0929ie on 10/30, 1258ie on 10/31, and 
1213ie on 11/1.

Fountain has been seen occasionally, but due to bad weather, few gazers, and 
the closure of Firehole Lake Drive, there have not been many reports from 
it.  I lucked out and waited 10 minutes for a normal, 30-minute eruption on 
the 27th but every other time I've been there Fountain was nowhere close.

Wish I had more information, but it's basically been like winter the past 2 
weeks.  I'm looking forward to having some company for the weekend!

--Tara Cross

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