[Geysers] Geyser report, Sept. 24

[Tara Cross]

This is a geyser report for September 24, 2004.

After not being seen in daylight on the 23rd, Beehive erupted at 1349.  The 
Indicator was called i.e. at 1342.

Castle had a 3-minute minor at 1256.  It followed with a major at 1554.

Grand was reported by a visitor at 0900ie (the geyser fog was still so thick 
that it couldn't be seen from anywhere else) and followed with eruptions at 
1525 and 2254, both T1C.

Oblong was seen at 1229ie and 1623ns.

Events at Giant were as follows:

~1030-1100 there was an event during Fan & Mortar.  Runoff was not 
substantial.
1231ie Giant hot period, d>2m.  This was a small hot period with no Mastiff 
overflow.
1354 Giant hot period, d~5 1/2m.  There was some good Mastiff surging duing 
the 2-5 minute span to as much as 4 feet, and then it went flat and suddenly 
dropped.  There was a small restart after this hot period with a few 
vertical surges to about 1/4 of the way up the cone.
1746 Giant hot period, d=5m30s.  Mastiff had a few boils to 1-2 feet but 
runoff never reached India.
~1900 Giant hot period; inferred by runoff on platform.
2029 Giant hot period, d~7m15s.  India was nearly covered though Mastiff 
surging was not visible due to darkness and steam.
2338 Giant hot period, d~2 1/2m.  Feather Satellite came on but Mastiff 
didn't do anything.

I'm not terribly encouraged by the fact that Giant was being watched from 
dawn until midnight (at least) and did not manage to have any hot periods of 
the caliber it was having even as recently as last weekend.  Yes, the 
Mastiff surging in the 1354 hot period was impressive and the 2029 hot 
period broke the 7-minute mark, but these were not really impressive hot 
periods by any stretch.

Grotto erupted today at 1018, 1613, and 2200.  There was a nice Rocket major 
at 1200.

Dave Leeking called splashing in Main Vent at Fan & Mortar, so I hurried 
down that way and he filled me in on the details:

At approximately 0905, there was either a very weak cycle or maybe a Gold 
pause.  River and Gold had been on when Dave left F&M for a few minutes; 
when he returned, they were off and Angle was splashing weakly.  Then Angle 
shut off and everything was quiet for about 15 minutes before Main Vent 
started huffing.  Events progressed as follows:

0923 first visible Main Vent splash
0926 very large Main Vent splash into East Vent
0939 Bottom Vent #1, d~10m
0951 Bottom Vent #2, d~13m
1006 Bottom Vent #3, d~14m
1019 River Vent on
1020 Bottom Vent #4, d~4m
1020 Gold Vent on
1023 Angle Vent on
1030 water levels holding
1032 the water levels appeared to drop a bit in Gold, but High continued to 
"drool"
1034 water levels came back in Gold and High started erupting steadily to 1 
foot
1035 High and Gold went into "lock"; Angle continued to splash strongly
1039 all three vents suddenly dropped down.  Gold completely stopped while 
High continued to bubble to about 6 inches.  This lasted for about 30 
seconds.
1040 the minor vents resumed "lock" behavior, this time with Angle erupting 
steadily
1041 Main Vent had several large splashes
104219 East Vent started the eruption, followed about 5 seconds later by 
Main Vent.

The wind was blowing towards the bridge, so the only good viewing was from 
the picnic table side.  It was a Fan-dominated eruption; one large surge 
from Main Vent reached beyond Norris Pool.  The first pause was at 1101; the 
total duration was 32 minutes.  The interval was approximately 7 1/2 days.

I walked up on a lovely eruption of Artemisia on a double interval of 
24h25m.

Fountain was seen i.e. at 1318, so I went out at 1830 to try to catch the 
next eruption.  I sat at Fountain for 90 minutes and saw 5 eruptions of 
Drain.  The only other geyser I saw erupting in the Kaleidoscope area was 
Honey's Vent.  Spasm had started not too long before my arrival (water was 
still filling the drain hole next to Jelly); Fountain held a static water 
level.  I left due to darkness.

The weather was actually quite nice today after the geyser fog finally 
burned off.  It was mostly sunny with a few clouds and a light breeze; a 
lovely September day.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com

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