[Geysers] Norris Report 3-5-06

[Mike Keller]

I spent most of the day at Norris today.  Weather was sunny and in the
mid-30's.  Spring is trying to come to YNP!

 

Porcelain Basin:

 

Congress Pool is still overflowing.  The basin is a lovely blue and one of
the prettiest pools in all of Norris.

 

The small vent at the base of the Carnegie Drill Hole was active.

 

Guardian Geyser was in heavy steam phase all day.  It has been like this for
many months.  

 

There was deep snow in the alcove indicating Valentine is not active.  

 

Ledge Geyser's main vent was in light overflow.  One of the "finger vents"
was playing to a foot or so.  

 

I never saw any activity from Dark Cavern today.

 

One of the small vents by Lava Pool was cyclically active today to a few
feet.

 

Arsenic Geyser was having eruptions every 5-35 minutes reaching 1-5 feet.
The taller eruptions resulted in longer intervals.

 

Fireball Geyser is still dormant.

 

Constant Geyser was probably the tallest geyser I saw in the Porcelain Basin
today.  Intervals between series were 14-65 minutes, with each series having
one or two eruptions.  All eruptions lasted 10-15 seconds and reached 10-20
feet.

 

Whirligig is active, but I did not see it play during 3 hours of
observation.  Little Whirligig is dormant, but there were periods of
palpitations from the vent which sent small waves over its pool.

 

Splutter Pot is still dormant.

 

Bear Den and Ebony are dead.  Bear Den's vent is still buried from a hill
slide and Ebony had cold black water in its vent.  There are some recently
killed trees and an area of hot ground in the runoff area below where Bear
Den used to be.

 

There were about a dozen small spouting vents in the middle of Porcelain
Basin.  None appeared to be periodic.  There is still very little activity
in this area.  The flats below Big Blue Geyser towards Feisty Geyser are dry
with a few steaming vents.  The 10 foot perpetual vent in the area of Feisty
Geyser is still active.  It was the only feature overflowing/ejecting any
water in the entire area.

 

>From Whirligig I saw one large geyser erupting on the northern end of
Porcelain Terrace (uphill from Graceful Geyser) at 0843ie.  The play lasted
over an hour and was 5-15 feet high.  I did not see it erupt again the rest
of the day, but I was in the Back Basin most of the afternoon.

 

Back Basin:

 

I spent an hour at Steamboat.  In this time 42% of the minor play was
concerted.  There were some periods of jetting from the south vent, but I
never saw the north vent go vertical in play or either vent reach as tall as
the trees in the background while at the lower platform.  The runoff was ok,
but nothing to get excited about.

 

Echinus was in overflow all afternoon.

 

Veteran Geyser did not erupt all afternoon.  There were periods of stronger
minor play but nothing that seemed to indicate it was getting ready to
erupt.

 

Corporal Geyser had periods of overflow with some surging at 22-35 minute
intervals.

 

Vixen Geyser had snow in its basin, implying it hasn't erupted in a while.

 

Pearl Geyser was perpetually active to heights of 2-6 feet and in heavy
overflow.  The unnamed perpetual spouter across the trail from it was
vigorously active and playing 3-4 feet.

 

Rubble Geyser is dormant.

 

Palpitator Spring was 1134ie, but was drained later in the day.

 

Monarch Geyser continues to have periods of overflow and small spouting.
The best play I saw reached about 2 feet.

 

Minute Geyser was perpetually active every time I passed by.  The play was
2-3 feet high.

 

There was no evidence that "Forgotten Fumarole" has erupted in the past few
weeks.

 

MK

 

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