[Geysers] More on Grotto and the Electronic Log (Cross)

[Tara Cross]

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

A while back, Lynn Stephens commented that the Old Faithful Visitor Center logbook was looking awfully bare and asked gazers to please turn in their geyser times.  I'll be the first to admit that I am one of the guilty parties here, so this message is not meant to point fingers.  It's a reminder to myself and to others of what can sometimes happen when things are not reported.

When I left the park (way back) on May 30, I knew from my own observations that the last Grotto marathon had been on May 27.  Giant then erupted at 0715 on May 31, shortly after the 12th "normal" Grotto eruption after the previous marathon.

When I returned to the park on June 2, I was told--by gazers who had been there the entire week--that the marathon that was in progress that day was the first since May 27.  In other words, they reported that it was the first marathon in 6 days.

However, the electronic log posted by Ralph Taylor and excerpted below clearly shows that this is in fact not true.  The eruption that started around 0705 on May 31 was, in fact, a marathon that lasted roughly 15 1/2 hours.

31/May/06 01:43:00	06:43:00	01:25:00
31/May/06 07:05:00	05:22:00	15:35:00

I knew that Grotto was in eruption when Giant started, because it was passed along in a message to the listserv--and its steam cloud can be seen in the pictures posted by various gazers afterwards.  But it was never reported to the OFVC--or at least, it's not in the electronic version of the logbook compiled by Lynn Stephens and available online.  And apparently, nobody checked to see if Grotto was still i.e. later that day, or at least they did not tell anyone if they did.

Now, I understand that since Giant erupted, gazers were eager to get a break from the Upper Basin and see other things.  I would do (and have done) the same thing.  But in this case, an entire Grotto marathon was lost, because its start time was never reported and nothing further on Grotto appears in the log until June 2.

I'm sure a lot of people reading this are saying, "So what?"

Well, if Lee Whittlesey can remind us to include last names in our reports, then I'd like remind people to please, report what you see, and try not to pass along misinformation.

In case some of the readers of this listserv don't know it, our geyser reports are copied and placed in the park's archives, so they go into the historical record that will be seen by future researchers.  As I noted in my report about the July 3 Giant eruption, someone erroneously told a gazer who had just arrived in the park on July 2 that there had been no non-marathon eruptions of Grotto for a few days before Giant.  That gazer had no way of knowing that this wasn't true, because she wasn't there to see it herself.  But it was reported to the listserv, and might have gone uncorrected were it not for persnickety people like me.  

There may not be many gazers who care about a missed Grotto here and there, but I am personally VERY interested in what's been happening at Giant/Grotto this year, especially Giant's reaction to Grotto marathons.  When I was told that Grotto had not marathoned in 6 days, I thought that it was different and interesting behavior.  Turns out that Giant actually erupted near the start of a marathon that was overdue to happen--and that's really not uncommon behavior at all.

So, I'll be spending some time at the OFVC logbook on my next Yellowstone trip, and I encourage other gazers to please do the same.

Thanks for listening.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com
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