[Geysers] Geyser Report June 15 (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

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Great Fountain had 7 full bursts in the 8:02 eruption on June 15, which 
resulted in an interval of 16h29minutes.  I've seen about 35 starts and not 
one superburst this season.

I will not be observing Great Fountain for the next few days while I 
concentrate on some other projects.

I have seen no eruptive activity from Gemini, but haven't sat at White Dome 
for any length of time (other than what turned out to be the 2 hour 54 
minute interval) to see if Gemini is erupting.  Whenever I have driven by 
it, it has been full and quiet, or the "evil" vent has been bubbling away, 
sometimes up to 6-8 inches in height.

Naturally, I get a lot of questions about White Dome from people at Great 
Fountain.  It's amazing how people are so much more impressed by that large 
pile or rocks instead of Great Fountain's pool and terraces.  Analysis of 
107 closed intervals through June 14--
    mean        34 minutes
    median      30 minutes
   maximum    2h54m (I know I did not miss an eruption because I had moved 
down there after Great Fountain and waited until White Dome finally erupted)
    maximum    12 minutes

    These calculations ignore "minor" eruptions from White Dome, which are 
infrequent but do occur.  These act like aborted eruptions where water comes 
up visible in the opening of the tube and may even splash 2-3 feet above the 
top of the vent for 5 seconds, but then dies.


Distribution of the intervals:

Minutes                     Percentage
<20		23.4%
20 - 29		28.2%
30 - 39		18.8%
40 - 49		8.2%
50 - 59		11.8%
60 - 69		1.2%
70 - 79		3.5%
>79	(1:37, 2:54)	2.4%

Other geyser news:
    Beehive:  6/15 MaryBeth and Barry went out to West to look at their new 
property, Steve Robinson was at Giant, and I was in the office typing when 
someone in the VC asked, "Can anyone verify that Beehive erupted?  We have 
some visitors saying a ranger told them that the geyser that erupted behind 
Old Faithful was Beehive."  Subsequent investigations by the interpretive 
rangers revealed several visitor reports that Beehive erupted.  Beehive is 
written in the logbook at 14:19.

   Giant:  Still having hot periods.  I listened to Steve report one at 
15:33 lasting 8 minutes 32 seconds.  His report was broken but it didn't 
sound like Mastiff did any wide, steady surging.

   Grand:  Steve reported a Grand eruption at 12:28 as a G3Q.  I think 
that's the first three burst eruption reported this season.

Weather report:  Wave after wave after wave of rain, hail, and sleet again 
on Friday.

Animal report:  As I was leaving yesterday morning about 7:30 there was a 
deer grazing in the Myriad Group near the intersection between the outbound 
road and the road from Lower Hams.  Because deer are relatively rare here, I 
stopped to make certain I was seeing a deer.  She lifted her head, glanced 
at me, and then casually went back to grazing.  The deer that had bounded 
out of the trees from the north side of the road on the corner just before 
the road curves to go past Firehole Lake the other night was much less 
casual.  I was glad she went running quickly across the road because I don't 
think my insurance agent wants to pay for another repair of this pickup due 
to me hitting an animal at night in Yellowstone.

Visitor question of the day:  Yesterday morning I used the Park Service 
radio to call in the 1/2 hour prediction of 8:15 plus/minus 15 minutes.  
Some visitors had stopped in the VC about 8:20 and were told if they hurried 
they might get to see the eruption.  They understood that the prediction was 
plus/minus an hour instead of plus/minus 15 minutes.  They missed the first 
two or three bursts of the seven burst eruption.  Although they may have 
asked some other questions, the only one I can remember is "We hurried to 
get down here.  Where's the nearest coffee?"

Lynn Stephens

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