[Geysers] Geyser report 10/1/05 (Stephens)

[lynn stephens]

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE READERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED FOR ANY OTHER REASON WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR.

After sending out an email Thursday about the "regularity" of Beehive and Great Fountain, both decided to change intervals.

Great Fountain backed up from its ~5 pm eruption window to 14:02 on Thursday (9/29), 12:38 on Friday (9/30), then 13:30 on 10/1.  I was on my way to Fountain Thursday since it had erupted from a full pool at 10:31, but swung through Firehole Lake Drive, saw Great Fountain already in overflow, and stopped to wait for Great Fountain.  Fountain was 14:01 ns.  Fountain had switched back to long mode (11:19ie and 17:23vr) on 9/30.  

Beehive also did a jump-shift.  On Friday morning (9/30) at 6:15, the cone was white with almost no steam and Beehive was quiet for most of the morning.  Dave Leeking and I agreed it appeared to have erupted in the wee hours of the morning.  It was under observation until 20:00 and had not yet erupted.  Yesterday afternoon it was reported at 14:27ie--a 51hour49minute interval between sightings, presumably a triple interval.

Little Squirt has not been reported since September 25.  (Previous reports were the 16th and 21st.)

On 9/29 I saw something I hadn't seen before in the Pink Cone Group.  After Great Fountain I stopped near Bead because Labial looked like it was getting ready to erupt.  Labial's Satellite Vents started erupting at 1524.  The East Vent started the eruption, as usual, the West Vent participated for a couple minutes, then quit, also as usual for this year, and the East Vent continued erupting.  At 1534 Labial itself started to surge, while the East Satellite Vent was still erupting.  Labial surged several times before finally reaching into eruption at 1535, at which point Labial's East Satellite Vent stopped erupting.  In some of Labial's weaker eruptions this summer, only the main vent has been visible from the road with the other two vents barely participating in the eruption.  This eruption was one of the stronger eruptions with all three vents participating.  This was the first time I had ever seen Labial start while the Satellite Vent was still in eruption.

The weather report the past few days has been predicting a front moving in Saturday night with rain and then rain mixed with snow and snow for the next few days.  The front arrived as promised.  I woke to the sound of rain in the middle of the night and this morning as I was driving over to the VC, there were white flakes mixed in with the rain.  I'll be working in the office and watching geysers through the windshield for the next few days, although I may put on the raingear for a few hours to see how Giant is recovering from the last eruption.

The VC has gone to winter hours -- 9 am to 5 pm, with a staff of 4 naturalists-- Katy Duffy, Matt Johnson, Tom Kearney and Sara Bones (filling in for Beth until Beth returns from maternity leave).  The logbook has gone to winter mode also with Old Faithful and space for "All Other Geysers" on a single page.  The Lodge (and its associated facilities) closes today.  The Snow Lodge is apparently going to have a "mini-season" with 60 rooms open after the scheduled closing of October 23.  The Geyser Grill will stay open through November 6, but the Snow Lodge dining room will be closing October 23.  

The elk and bison are still causing plenty of traffic jams.  Yesterday late morning there was a bison herd on Firehole Lake Drive that included a little orange calf that didn't look more than three weeks old.  It was friskily jumping around, waving its tail, and seemed to want another bison calf to play with it.  Unfortunately, all the other, much bigger calves, were concentrating on eating--getting ready to survive the winter.  This little one has plenty of catching up to do, so hopefully it will be a mild winter.

I haven't been out at Great Fountain early in the morning recently, so haven't heard the wolves howling again, but the bull elk are still bugling.

I'm here until October 12, then will take a two week "vacation" and plan to come back October 28 through closing.

Lynn Stephens 
 
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