[Geysers] Geyser report May 7

[TSBryan at aol.com]

A couple of interesting events today, one no doubt a follow-up to last  
evening's Giant. First the "ordinary."
 
 
Somebody saw Fountain i.e. at 0758, after I'd passed by.
Grand at  0333e, then 1140 (T1C), I=8h07m
Beehive at 0948, 24h10m from yesterday's eruption. Today's Indicator was 12  
minutes.
Lion was 0937 initial and 1056 #2 and last.
 
Interesting item #1. There has been an energy shift at Biscuit Basin (that  I 
don't recall hearing of before). Up at the Silver Globes and Avoca Spring, 
the  energy has shifted to Avoca. It -- the main vent in the long rift -- is 
erupting  constantly with jets several feet high. It obviously at times does more 
than I  saw today, as there are washed areas around the crater. Meanwhile, 
Silver Globe  (the deep hole at the Zygomatic Arch) is at a very low water level 
and totally  quiet. The little geyser I call BBG-3 is "dead" and badly 
decayed. Across the  walk, there was minimal action in Silver Globe Geyser (the blue 
pool), very weak  spray from"Cave," which has not reached beyond its 
immediate basin in quite a  long time. I did see a very nice eruption of Silver Globe 
Slit, but as I recall,  it tends to be more active when the other Silver 
Globes are not.
 
Interesting item #2. Upon my arrival today I immediately headed down to  
Giant-Grotto to check on recovery from yesterday's 2220 eruption of Giant. I  
found the Giant Complex to be very dead. At Grotto, Grotto Fountain was showing  a 
bit of water but none was visible in Indicator Spring. I departed, went to  
Geyser Hill for a while, and etc. etc. and then returned to Giant with Matt  
Johnson (who replaced the sign logs at 0924). Then I went on to Grotto.
 
Just in time. Grotto Fountain started at 0940. As it started, Indicator was  
_overflowing_ a little with easily visible convection. Yes. Grotto Fountain 
had  a very rapid start. Meanwhile, Grotto was strangly silent. About 6 minutes 
after  Grotto Fountain started, Rocket began having voluminous bursts from a 
low water  level.
 
At about this time, Grotto Fountain got huge; I mean, wow. South Grotto  
Fountain was also huge, for it, as viewed from the Grotto boardwalk jetting over  
and beyond the dead log to its right. And Grotto was silent. Rocket was  
bursting. And Grotto Fountain continued.
 
At 1006 -- 26 minutes into Grotto Fountain -- Rocket took off with a BIG  
major. Grotto was silent. 
 
PLEASE NOTE: Rocket major starting the action, not Grotto.
 
Rocket's duration was fully 6 1/2 minutes, and it was only near its end  that 
Grotto finally decided to do something. At about the same time, Grotto  
Fountain went into a semi-steam phase. The only time I've ever previously  
witnessed that was a few days after the 1988 Giant, when Grotto Fountain has a  series 
of what I called "steam breaks" during a 53-minute eruption.
 
Then Grotto Fountain quit abruptly at 1009, duration, 29+ minutes. Rocket  
quit about 3 minutes later. And Grotto _gradually_ (very slowly) decided to sort 
 of erupt. I wrote down 1012 as a start time for Grotto, but that's very 
loose.  It quit at or beforfe 1130, after a Grotto duration of not more than  
1h20m.
 
How cool. As I left a few minutes later, I could easily see water in GIP  
from the boardwalk and then also saw a bit of jetting in Catfish and the back  
vent of Mastiff. (But even as of about 1200, after Grand, nothing was seen in  
Bijou.)
 
Cool.
 
Scott Bryan
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