[Geysers] February Sput (Stephens)

[lynn stephens]

I received my copy of the February Sput yesterday.  

Ralph Taylor's "Letter from the President" was written before Don Might accepted the "job" (volunteer position just like everyone who does things for GOSA) of being the webmaster.  Don has already started working on the webpage.  The electronic versions of the OFVC logbooks (along with other files and pages within the website) had become truncated so data was missing or garbled and the files could not be downloaded for use in spreadsheets (at least I couldn't get them to download such that I could get the data into columns).  Rather than sending Don all the monthly files, I sent annual files for 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 through October 31.  (I don't have Xerox copies of the logbook pages since then so will have to wat for a few months to do the remainder of the year.)  The files range in size from about 525K to 825K.  They are tab delimited (.txt extension) files that can be downloaded, then used in Excel (and I assume other spreadsheet program
 s).  I have sent detailed, step-by-step instructions for Tom and Genean to print in the April issue of The Sput.  Email me directly if you want a copy of the instructions.  Thanks Don for getting those files (almost instaneously) uploaded.

Scott's article about Narcissus Geyser prompted me to post an item about the electronic version of the OFVC logs here.  Scott contacted Ralph Taylor and got permission to mine some of the data from the electronic monitoron Narcissus.  Quoting Scott, he used the data to test a "suggestion [that] has generally been taken as an often-questioned "fact without proof."   Although the OFVC logbooks are very incomplete, there is some data there on geysers that are not electronically monitored.

I think there are a number of "facts without proof" or even "facts that were proven long ago and need to be retested" about many geysers.  Geyser behavior changes (which is what keeps most of us interested).  Hopefully some of you will make a few observations of your own,  maybe supplement them with data from the OFVC logbook or compare them to results that other people have reported in The Sput or elsewhere, and report your results either confirming that an accepted fact remains true, develop a new "fact", or sugges that there's been a change that no one else has mentioned.  You don't have to collect data for several weeks or months--depending on the geyser, a few hours or so might be sufficient.  For example, it's been a few summers since I spent the day at Lone Star to get three closed intervals from major to major.  "We" think it's still erupting at about 3 hours from major to major, based on visitor reports, etc., but has anyone tested that assumption recently.  Or, how 
 many minor eruptions is it having from major to major?  You don't have to write up a long article--just a few paragraphs reporting your observations and maybe a bit of Lone Star's history.  On the other hand, you could write up a "A Day in the Life of Lone Star" (just don't use that title because I'm using "A Day in the Life..." title for an upcoming article) that includes not just geyser behavior, but also comments on wildlife, flowers, visitors--whatever.  Pack a lunch and a book, hike out early in the morning so you can enjoy both early morning and late afternoon rainbows in Lone Star's eruption.  Collect some "unknown fact"--for example, from what distance can the steam phase be heard?  (Even if you hear it on the way out in the morning, don't be discouraged that you just missed the major.  At least you know you haven't missed a minor so you can collect data on the number of minors before the next major.)

Hopefully this post will stimulate some ideas about projects some of the people who can't spend a lot of time in Yellowstone can undertake and write-up for either The Sput or The Transactions.  

Lynn Stephens (lstephens.eagle at sisna.com)
  
 
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