[Geysers] Geyser report: F&M on 10/3 and 10/8 and event cycles

[Graham Meech]

Even though I missed Giant (the day after I arrived) and then it erupted the
day after I left (grrrrr) I was fortunate to see both F&M eruptions during
my trip.

 

F&M were either in “Angle mode” with Angle on all the time regardless of
whether River was on or not, or they were in “Bottom vent mode” with Angle
off, Main vent splashing and Bottom vent erupting or splashing strongly.
For much of the time, event cycles appeared to be happening every 5-7 hours.
I was bouncing between Giant and F&M on several days and the event cycles
were quite easy to notice because of the water in Bottom vents runoff
channel so I know on several days that there were no event cycles before the
5 hour mark.

 

For the 10/3 eruption, I saw the activity starting with Bottom vent in
eruption so I don’t know if there was a pause or not before that.  I chatted
with some visitors and new gazers and they stayed while river turned on.  15
minutes after River turned on the water levels still looked good so I moved
my pack and came back to the benches carrying my waterproof leggings just in
case.  As I expected, hiding my pack made F&M loose their water and I
thought this would be another bust cycle.  Then all of a sudden the water
came back and the vents started to come on and off with a lot of water
(looking like Feather satellite when they were on).  So I went to the next
level of preparation – putting on my waterproof leggings and warning the
people around me that they would get wet if they stayed at the benches (the
wind was blowing all around in the direction of the benches and the bridge).
They moved away, stopping at the Spiteful sign..oops bad move on their part.
My evil thoughts wondered what would happen if they stayed there and F&M
erupted
hehe.  By then High and Gold looked like Feather and were not
stopping – it’s a lock!  My good side prevailed and I told the victims,
sorry I mean visitors, to keep going to the trees by the bench which they
did.  At one point it looked like the vents were dying down but Main vent
splashed a couple of times and East vent took off at 1329.  Fan was very
strong and there was water in the Norris pools area all the way to ¾ of the
way across the bridge.  East vent was great to watch as it kept erupting,
stopping and starting.  I got very wet too and persuaded the visitors to run
through and see what was going on at the other side too since its so
different watching Mortar erupt.  That was a great eruption for me and the
first one I have called on the radio that did not wimp out.

 

10/8 was a whole different deal.  There had been two earlier event cycles
and I went out to Fountain.  I forgot to take my coat with me and as the sun
started down and Fountain had not erupted I decided to leave before I got
cold – the wind was blowing hard at Fountain too.  I came back to the UGB
and decided to stroll down basin for a walk, to see if Grotto was still
going (which it was going, and going, and going the next morning too).  I
continued down to F&M because it was 6 hours after the previous seen event
cycle.  As I passed Grotto and walked on to Link I could hear that something
was going on at F&M.  I expected to see Bottom vent going when I got down
there.  As I got next to Links pool I saw Fan take off.  Wow that was a
great thing to see from next to Link, I could see the whole fan of water
shoot up everywhere.  So then I speeded up pulled out my radio and looked at
my watch – 1900 start time.  Since there was a slight breeze blowing towards
the river I was able to stand on the boardwalk right between Fan and Mortar
through the whole eruption and was there to see Upper Mortar start up about
90 seconds after Fan.  It was great being able to stand and watch it up so
close without getting wet, that’s the first time that has happened to me at
F&M.  Of course it just didn’t seem right not getting wet though :-)  Fan
was not very strong there was just a small area of boardwalk by the Spiteful
sign that got wet and a few feet of gravel.  There were a couple of very
surprised visitors who got a shock as F&M took off, but they enjoyed it
whole lot too!

 

 

The details are listed below.

 

Tuesday 9/28

 

1505 River turned off and Angle stopped too

1506 Angle came back on and stayed on splashy until 1515 when it turned off

1516 River came on for just over a minute and then turned off – a valid
River vent pause?

1522 Main vent splash and Bottom vent tried to start

1524 Main vent splash

1534 River on

1534 Bottom vent erupted for 2 minutes

1535 Gold on

1545 Angle on, the vents were not strong

1601 River off, Angle stayed on

 

Wednesday 9/29

 

~0600 River vent was off and Angle was on

0607 Upper Mortar huffed and Angle shut off

0622 River on

0626 River off for a River vent pause

0628 Main vent splash followed by many more splashes

0635 Bottom Vent d=29m with several pauses, ending at 0704

0701 River on quickly followed by Gold

0705 Angle on

0721 Gold and Angle go to steam and everything died down

 

Thursday 9/30

 

0559ie Bottom Vent, off @ 0605

0604 River and Gold on

0607 Angle on

0622 vents are still on strong but not in a lock

0624 vents all go to steam

 

Friday 10/1

 

0604ie Bottom vent finishing an eruption

0605 main vent splash

0605 Bottom vent on d=8m

0613 River, Gold and Angle all turn on and water levels never looked good

 

1758ie Bottom vent d=10m

1806 Main vent splash

18011 Bottom vent d=3m

1812 River on

1813 Gold on

1814 Angle on but the water levels died down

1833 water levels improved for a little while then shut off

 

Saturday 10/2

 

0512ir Bottom vent, ended 0514

0513 River and Gold on, Angle shortly after but the water levels never
looked good

 

1029 Bottom vent d=14m and Main vent splashing

1044 Bottom vent, d=20m

1103 River on

1104 Gold on

1106 Angle on

1125 River off, water never looked good

 

Sunday 10/3

 

0542 Main vent splashing

0548 Bottom vent d=11m

0603 Bottom vent d=11m

0615 Bottom vent d=4n

0616 last big Main vent splash

0621 Bottom vent d=2m

0622 River and Gold on

0628 Angle on but water levels did not look good

 

ERUPTION CYCLE

1238ie Bottom vent on and Main vent splashing

1258 Bottom vent off and last big Main vent splash

1259 Bottom vent on again, d=10m

1307 River on

1308 Gold on

1311 Angle on

1319 water levels dropped but did not go to steam

1322 water levels rebound

1325 Gold and High go into lock

1327 looked like Gold and High were dying down but they rebounded fast

1328 two Main vent splashes (much bigger than the usual main vent splashing
but nowhere near the early eruption splashes, angled towards the benches)

1329 Fan &Mortar, East vent start, d=33m, initial burst d=13m

1342 pause

1344 restart

1349 pause

1351 restart

1353 pause

1355 restart

1356 pause

1358 restart as steam but turned to water at 1400

1402 paused, last water.

1404 restarted with just steam

1406 paused again

 

Tuesday 10/5

 

1505 Main vent splashing

1511 Bottom vent d=11m

1524 Bottom vent d=9m

1526 last big Main vent splash

1533 Bottom vent d=3m

1538 River on

1542 Gold and Angle on but the water levels were not good

 

Thursday 10/7

 

1102 Bottom vent d=12m

1113 big Main vent splash

1117 Bottom vent d=10m

1130 Bottom vent d=14m

1137 last big Main vent splash

1152 River and Gold on

1157 Angle on but water levels never got very high

 

1842 Bottom vent runoff channel was wet and River and Gold were on

1845 Angle on but water levels never got very good

 

Friday 10/8

 

0547 River and Angle turn off and Main vent is huffing noisily

0549 Main vent splashing starts

0559 Bottom vent d=9m

0601 last big Main vent splash

0607 River on

0608 Gold on

0612 Angle on but water levels died out too soon

 

1255 Main vent splashing starts

1301 Bottom vent d=21 m

1322 Bottom vent d=22m

1342 River on

1343 Gold on

1345 Angle on

1357 water levels looked good but crashed at 1358

 

1900 Fan d=32m, initial burst d=12m

1901 Mortar

1912 pause

1914 restart

1917 pause

1919 restart

1921 pause

1922 restart

1926 pause

1929 restart

1932 pause

There was one brief steam burst in the next 7 minutes but no real restart

 

 

 

 

 

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