[Geysers] Geyser Report, April 30-May 4

[Tara Cross]

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

This geyser report is a summary of the activity seen April 30-May 4.  I know 
there are some repetitions from earlier reports but I thought I'd summarize 
what was going on while I was in the basin.

Little Squirt was active on 5/1 and 5/3.

Little Anemone continues to be active.  I did not spend much time observing 
it but I did see 2 duals.

Once again I was not in the area a lot, but every time I looked at Spume 
it's crater was full.

Plume continues to be quite regular.  Most of the intervals I recorded were 
54-59 minutes, though I did have one interval of 51 minutes.

Beehive's known eruptions during this period were:

April 30 @ 0937 (Indicator 0930ie)
May 1 @ 1621 (Ind. 1613)
May 2 @ 0951 (Ind. 0946)
May 3 @ 1503 (Ind. unknown)
May 4 @ 0940 (Ind. 0930)

This likely represents intervals of 30h44m (double), 17h30m (single), 29h12m 
(double), and 18h37m (single).  The Indicator probably started at least 
several minutes before Beehive on the 3rd, but no one was in a position to 
confirm the Visitor Center's call that there was steady steam from the 
Beehive area (I was dutifully waiting for a Giant hot period).

On the 4th, I saw that Beehive was splashing nicely when I got to the basin 
at 0900 so I walked up to the Hill and sat down in front of Beehive.  At 
0926 I noted that the Close-to-Cone Indicator was bubbling and sputtering to 
a few inches.  Its eruption built to about a foot high and then dwindled 
when Beehive had an enormous splash.  About a minute later I saw water in 
the Indicator, which started to erupt at 0930.  The C-C Indicator continued 
to erupt to 1-2 feet until about two minutes into Beehive, when the main 
Indicator dropped to 1-2 feet and the C-C Indicator began erupting to full 
strength, reaching the height of Beehive's cone.  And the annoying cloud 
finally moved from over the sun, so I even got my rainbow.

In keeping with the longer intervals that have been recorded, I saw 
Depression only once, on 5/1.

Lion:  I got Initial-to-2nd intervals of 84m and 90m on the 30th and the 1st 
respectively, and on the 2nd Lion was seen at 0952 (initial) and again at 
1942ie (unknown).  From what I have in my book, Little Cub appeared to be 
having intervals of a little less than an hour, but I did not check the VC 
logbook.

During my visit, Aurum had consistent 3-3.5 hour intervals, EXCEPT when I 
was waiting for it.  Okay, so it actually did have a couple of longer 
intervals when I wasn't there, but I was seriously annoyed.  Below are the 
recorded eruptions of Aurum, with an asterisk (*) showing those intervals 
for which I was present at Aurum.

April 30:  0840, 1210, 1515, after 1935 (I=3h30m, 3h05m, >4h20m*)
May 1:  1102, 1404, 1715, 2037 (I=3h02m, 3h11m, 3h22m)
May 2:  0916, 1354, 1702, after 2035 (I=4h38m*, 3h08m, >3h33m*)
May 3:  0937, ?, 1704 (double interval of 7h27m)
May 4:  0941, 1316 (I=3h35m)

Plate was seen on April 30 but I don't have it in my book for the rest of 
the time I was in the basin.

As reported before, Butterfly Spring is having cyclic splashing to 1 foot.

Castle had a nice series of majors, 1213ie on the 30th, 0248e and 1555 on 
the 1st, and ?? and 1850ie on the 2nd.  Then it evidently had a minor at 
0714e on the 3rd, because it followed with a major at 1417ie.  The following 
eruption was at 0408e on the 4th.

I didn't see too many deep drains at Sawmill, though I did not spend a lot 
of time in the area.  As Scott reported, Uncertain was seen on the 3rd and a 
deep drain was in progress when I left the basin on the 4th.  Barry Leedy 
reported seeing Slurp at least once earlier in April.  There have been no 
reports of any Penta-Churn activity; I only saw Spasmodic overflowing once.

Grand continues to stay mostly in the 6.5-9.5 hour range.  Scott has 
reported on the notable activity seen from the Grand group.  I'm starting to 
wonder if we'll ever see 3 bursts from it this year; to my knowledge, no one 
has seen one yet this season.

Daisy was its temperamental self; some intervals were in the 2-2.5 hour 
range but there were longer ones, and the splashing in the cones and the 
main vent were not always reliable indicators.  On the 3rd I was going to 
sit it out and see what happened, since the cones were splashing and there 
were lazy splashes over the main vent, but I fled from the snow storm that 
swept down from Mystic Falls at the 3-hour point in the interval.  El zippo 
from Splendid.

Oblong's intervals appear to have lengthened, though it was usually seen 
twice a day:

April 30:  1719 (an interval of well over 7 hours; no one saw the previous 
eruption)
May 1:  1038ie, 1656
May 2:  1233, sometime between 1715-1745 (based on empty crater)
May 3:  0835ie, 1455
May 4:  0814ie, 1307ns

Here's a run-down of the happenings in the Giant-Grotto area:

April 30:

0927 Grotto Fountain
0937 Grotto (1st after marathon)
1013 Giant hot period (d~4m)
1200 GHP (d~6 1/2m), India 1/2 covered
1446 GHP (d=3m17s)
1544 Grotto Fountain
1549 Grotto

May 1:

0850 GHP (d=8m15s), Mastiff 4 feet, India covered, Turtle 1 foot
1304 GHP (d=7m33s), Mastiff 2 feet, India 2/3 covered
1333 Grotto Fountain
1336 Grotto (start of marathon)

May 2:

Grotto off by 0900
1130 GHP (d=9m10s), Mastiff 4 feet (once, mostly 1-2 feet), India 2/3 
covered
1551 GHP (d=5m)
~1850 GHP (not seen; India 1/2 covered)
2044ns Grotto (1st after marathon)

May 3:

0815ie GHP (India less than 1/2 covered)
1013 South Grotto Fountain (after several earlier splashing episodes)
1017 Grotto (no Grotto Fountain)
~1000-1015 GHP (while we were watching the events at Grotto; very little 
overflow from Mastiff)
1502 GHP (d=8m45s), Mastiff 4 feet (mostly 1-3 feet), India covered
1510 Grotto Fountain
1513 Grotto
1627 Rocket major

May 4:

Weirdness, as Scott has already described.  I wasn't sure what to make of 
it, but I had to leave, and apparently Scott also left without seeing the 
next Grotto start.  With a Rocket major at 0821, it seems reasonable to 
postulate that Grotto started around 0700, give or take.  I'm pretty sure 
Grotto was off by 0900, so that gives a 2-hour duration, roughly; yet 
apparently the next interval was in the order of at least 8 hours (again, 
assuming that it had not started by the time Grand was over around 1450).  
At 1200 the Giant platform was very dry, so I was thinking there should be a 
hot period soon.  Around 1330 Scott came back from checking on Grotto and 
said "Something's not right."  The really striking thing was how little 
energy/water there seemed to be, especially on the Giant platform.  Bijou 
had all but quit; Catfish was having a few weak splashes every so often, and 
Mastiff even less often.  It was so quiet that I could even hear Mastiff 
boiling, but no water was visible.  I thought maybe something would happen 
after Oblong erupted at 1307 but alas.  I decided I either had to leave then 
or I was never going to get on the road.  Oh, well.  At least I didn't get 
the news that Giant was erupting as I drove through West Yellowstone.

Riverside was the usual.

I did spend a little time at Fan & Mortar--about 2 hours each on the 2nd and 
3rd.  On the 2nd I observed two ordinary cycles, each a bit over an hour 
long.  The water levels were mediocre and Frying Pan did not erupt, but I 
did notice some water in Bottom Vent's runoff channel; not enough to 
indicate an actual eruption, but there was definitely some good splashing 
before I arrived.  On the 3rd, River was off when I arrived and then stayed 
off for 45 minutes except for a short "cough."  Then the system had what I 
can only describe as "a cycle without Angle."  River came on, followed 4 
minutes later by Gold.  Then, after 18 minutes, everything shut off.  At 
other times I might have called this a Gold pause but it had none of the 
trappings of a real pause (nothing from Main Vent, weak splashing in Bottom 
Vent).  River turned on again after 12 minutes, and even though Gold delayed 
14 minutes, the water levels were abysmal.  I left before the cycle was 
over.  My assessment, based on many hours of watching F&M in the spring over 
the past 4 seasons, is that it is definitely in spring slop; don't expect 
any short intervals soon.

Artemisia's steam cloud was seen each day, 4/30 through 5/3, at 2003ie, 
1234ie, 1915ie, and 1004ie, respectively.

By the way, it just isn't the same without Baby Daisy.  Sigh.

On my way out of the park on the 4th, I jogged up to Opal Pool.  For those 
coming to the park in the next few weeks, it's worth having a look; water is 
not visible from the boardwalk and there's a nice little babbling waterfall 
of runoff from Grand Prismatic flowing into it.

It seemed that whenever things were slow in the Upper Basin, Fountain was 
nowhere near its window.  I only went to the Lower Basin twice during my 
stay and once saw the last half of Fountain (on the 4th).  So I don't have 
much to report--Scott and Steve Eide both saw several eruptions though, and 
Scott has reported on the intervals thus far.

The active phase on May 1 was the only activity that Silex had during my 
visit.

There was still a lot of snow on the hillsides around Old Faithful but the 
main trails were all clear.  Though snow was predicted for each day, the 
only day we actually got serious snow was the 3rd, and it didn't stick.  
Other than that storm, it was either sunny or partly cloudy with 
temperatures in the 40s and 50s, not bad for May.

Unlike those who came for Opening Weekend, I saw almost no wildlife of note. 
  There were a few bison with new calves hanging around the Inn area.  Now 
bear, no wolves; just an osprey or two, bison and elk on the road to West, 
and a trio of swans near Seven Mile bridge.

It was good to see the few folks who were around; thanks to everyone, 
especially Scott, for all the info.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com