[Geysers] Geyser Report: Fan & Mortar, Oct. 25 @ 1359

[Tara Cross]

A message from Tara Cross <fanandmortar at hotmail.com>

This is the first in a series of long-overdue geyser reports.  I thought I'd 
start out with the recent news:  Fan & Mortar erupted today at 1359.

I finally got down to check on Fan & Mortar today around 1215, after seeing 
Grotto start at 1205.  The marker was in place, Bottom Vent's runoff channel 
was dry, and there didn't appear to be anything going on.  So, I headed back 
up in hopes of catching Oblong.  When I got out of the trees past Grotto, 
Oblong was just starting.  I hung around to watch Oblong and then decided 
that since Grand wasn't due until 1400 that I would stay in the area to try 
to catch a Rocket major.  With some time to kill, I headed back down to Fan 
& Mortar.

When I arrived, Bottom Vent was splashing, and sure enough, Main Vent had a 
large splash at 1258.  Water was just beginning to trickle down Bottom 
Vent's runoff channel, so it had not had a full eruption yet.  Events 
progressed as follows:

1303 Bottom Vent #1 (d=8m35s)
1309 Bottom Vent #2 (d=1m)
1315 Bottom Vent #3 (d=10m33s)
1330 Bottom Vent #4 (d=11m)
1342 River Vent on
1342 Bottom Vent #5 (d=1m20s)
1343 Gold Vent on
1344 Bottom Vent #6 (d=40s)
1345 Angle Vent on

The water levels were GREAT for a full 12 minutes.  In fact, between 10 and 
12 minutes, Gold, High, and Angle were erupting constantly to normal 
heights.  Then, at 1354, the water levels dropped for about one minute.  
High was still barely drooling and there was still water in Gold, it just 
didn't have a visible water level.  Because the water levels had started out 
so good and had never really "bottomed out," I was still hopeful that the 
minor vents would come back.  They did.  At 1356, the water levels were back 
to looking great.  At 1357, High Vent went into "lock," erupting steadily to 
5-6 feet by itself.  Gold and Angle were erupting constantly but still to 
normal heights.  Then at 1359 Gold joined in with the lock and High built to 
8-10 feet.  About 15 seconds later, East Vent started, followed 5 seconds 
later by everything else.

Considering that it was mostly cloudy and the ground was still covered with 
6-8 inches of snow, the viewing conditions for this eruption were actually 
quite good.  The sun was behind a thin layer of clouds, giving some light, 
and the wind was blowing towards the picnic table, allowing me to watch from 
the jugwalk and not get wet (this is important when it's 30 degrees 
outside).  Though Mortar continued its 2004 behavior by waiting 2 minutes to 
begin in earnest, it appeared to dominate; Fan wasn't shabby either, sending 
several large surges that went 10-15 feet past the jugwalk.  The first pause 
was at 1415; the duration was 34 minutes.

I had seen several event cycles in the days prior to this eruption, and Dave 
Goldberg also reported seeing several event cycles.  They appeared about the 
same as others seen this fall; up to 45-50 minutes of Main Vent splashing 
along with Bottom Vent eruptions out the wazoo.  Water levels in the minor 
vents would typically look good for 10-12 minutes before disappearing in a 
matter of seconds (usually about the time I was thinking about wondering if 
maybe it might perhaps want to erupt on that cycle).

One difference in the minor activity noted by both Dave and myself is that 
there appears to be more activity in Lower Mortar.  Rather than having one 
constant eruption with pauses of only 20-30 seconds, Bottom Vent would pause 
for up to 3-5 minutes, having periodic splashing about every 30 seconds 
during the break.  When Bottom Vent was not splashing, the water rose in 
Lower Mortar and it had "fuzzballs," and on several occasions it even had a 
visible water level (this will mean something to a very few of you:  water 
levels ranged between "potato" and "yellow," sometimes bordering on "red").  
It was really nice to see that again after months of getting excited when 
Lower Mortar had water in it at all.  This was especially pronounced during 
today's eruption cycle, but it has been seen several times during this 
interval.

And speaking of intervals.  This interval was probably 10 1/2 days, though I 
am not completely certain that it didn't erupt sometime last week and fail 
to wash the marker, which was not in the usual location.  At any rate, just 
to refresh the memory, here are the eruptions of Fan & Mortar from September 
and October:

September 1 @ 2322 electronic
September 9 @ 1537
September 16-17 overnight
September 24 @ 1042
October 3 @ 1329
October 8 @ 1900
October 13-14 overnight
October 25 @ 1359

If the last interval was indeed closed, this gives us a very fun 5-day 
window, from 5 1/2 to 10 1/2 days.

On to the next report!

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com

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