[Geysers] Geyser Report October 3 and 4 (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 CONSENT FROM THE AUTHOR. 

16:28 October 4

Great Fountain is staying at the 3 pm slot--1511 on 10/3 and 1505 on 10/4.  The eruption on 10/3 was one of the weakest first bursts I had seen all summer.  I didn't stay long today since the heavy, wet snow was starting to accumulate on the road and vehicles.

Pink Cone was 10:49 on 10/3, an interval of 18h39 minutes.

Gemini was active yesterday morning.

As Kitt noted, Solstice is active.  Every time I had it in view yesterday and today, it was active.

Yesterday (10/3) morning I watched a giant hot period at 8:53 that lasted 8m24s.  Feather started before the southwest vents started.  Mastiff had heavy overflow but no surging above a foot or so.  India was 90% covered.  I waited about 10 minutes after the hot period ended.  There was no restart and no Mastiff depth charging or vertical surging from Giant.  Grotto was not in eruption as of 9:30 but was ie at 11:03 and off by 12:15.

This morning (10/4) when I arrived at 7:15 Bijou was active, and Giant was having some vertical splashing, some to the top of the bit.  Giant had a 2m08s hot period at 8:16.  

There was a 4 1/2 minute Bijou pause at 09:26.  

The next pause was at 1007.  The southwest vents started at 10:10, and Feather started a minute later.  Feather's Satellite came on almost immediately.  About 5 minutes into the hot period, Mastiff was having sustained surging 3-5 feet (half the height of Giant's cone).  Some of the spikes from the surges reached almost as high as Giant's cone.  India was once again about 90% covered.  The hot period lasted 7m54s.  Feather did not restart, but Mastiff was having depth charging and Giant was having vertical surging for at least 35 minutes after the hot period ended.

I didn't see Beehive yesterday, because I had dinner plans between 5:30 and 7:30.  Beehive was splashing heavily when I went in and was completely quiet when I came back out, so erupted during that time frame for a 25-27 hour interval.

The logbook contains a note on 9/11 that the energy had shifted from Beauty to Chromatic.  On 9/29 I noted that the energy was still in Chromatic.  This morning (10/4) the energy had shifted back.  Beauty was overflowing out the south (sending water under the boardwalk) and out the west side.  Water had not started flowing out the northerly runoff channel.

Weather--wet yesterday morning and wet all day today.  The snow yesterday morning had turned the roof of the Inn white, covering up the blue.  (By the way, the blue on the roof isn't tarps, instead it is a layer covering the water vapor material.  The roofers peel off the blue layer as they are putting on the shingles.)  The roofers have started putting on the shingles.  Visitor Question:  How many shingles will it take to cover the roof of the Inn?

It cleared up yesterday afternoon, then started snowing again this morning.  The air temperature was warm enough this morning that the snow wasn't sticking, and the precipitation was often mixed with rain.  I went to the Lower Basin right after Grand (1251, G1Q) and the road was bare and wet.  I left Great Fountain at 1515 and the road all the way back to Old Faithful was covered with about 2-3 inches of snow/slush.  I think the weather report is for more of the same the next few days.

Lynn Stephens


 
 
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