[Geysers] Geyser report, 11/3/06

[Tara Cross]

We awoke to about an inch of snow on the ground at Old Faithful; those in West Yellowstone said they had 3 inches.  When I was first out in the basin at 0600 it was calm and partly cloudy, but then snow moved in between 0700 and 1000.  In the afternoon there was enough clear sky for the sun to warm us for a few hours, before more clouds moved in during the late afternoon.  It was significantly better than we had expected based on the forecast, and mostly above freezing during the day.

Just a quick run down of geyser activity:

Beehive erutped sometime before 0645 this morning.  Everything was completely quiet there when I could finally see Geyser Hill.  Beehive had started splashing by mid-afternoon, but the bubblers were not active as of dark.

Kitt reported Depression at 0843 and Aurum at 1053.

The overnight time on Grand was 0246E.  Grand then erupted at 1019 (2 bursts) and at 1654 (T1C).

Daisy was having long intervals today.  It was seen at 0843, 1300, and 1716.

Oblong erupted twice in daylight, but I somehow neglected to write down the time of either eruption.

Riverside erupted at 0641 and 1316.

Now for Giant:

The eruption that began at 1821 on Nov. 2 turned out to be a marathon.  When I checked Giant this morning, Bijou was completely dead and there had obviously been no hot periods for many hours.  Grotto quit between 1000-1100 for an approximate duration of 16 hours.

We waited for the post-marathon hot period until after dark.  Finally at 1918, approximately 9 hours after the end of the marathon, there was a hot period that lasted 10m25s.  Mastiff surged to 4-5 feet several times and put out enough to thorougly cover India.  There was a restart lasting approximately 2 minutes that included low vertical surges in Giant.

Overall we were quite encouraged by the delay between the end of Grotto and the hot period, and the strength of the hot period.  We are hoping it waits until moring but will be keeping close tabs on it.

Lower Basin:

Jeff and I were in the Firehole Lake Drive area for several hours this morning.  We got an interval of 29m on A-0, saw Logbridge once, and obtained intervals averaging around 4 1/2 minutes for Botryoidal.

Great Fountain was in overflow at 0915 and had been for a while, based on how far the water had made it down the terraces.  However it did not erupt until 1115 (p=0).  That means that the overflow was in excess of 2 hours.  The eruption itself was not more than 100 feet tall, but it had an impressive first burst and initial wave.

We did not see anything else of note in the Lower Basin.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com




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