[Geysers] Geyser Report 11/5/06

[Tara Cross]

The weather at Old Faithful got progressively worse over the course of closing weekend, culminating in a snowy, blustery, shivery day on Sunday.  It really did seem like the Park was telling us to get out, so this will be a brief report mainly covering the morning hours, when the wind was not as cutting.

Once again, no Beehive in daylight, and no bubblers.

Grand erupted at 0501E and 1235 (T2C).

Oblong erupted at 0626ie and 1213ie.

As for Giant, it was unattended from 2230 on 11/4 until 0630 on 11/5.  Upon arrival it was hard to tell if there had been any intervening strong hot periods because the entire platform was wet from recent snow (about an inch of it on the trails).  Events then progressed as follows:

0635 Giant hot period, d=3m28s.  Feather, Rust, and SW Vents; Mastiff overflowed lightly.
0750 Giant hot period, d~5 1/2m.  Feather Satellite active; Mastiff overflowed lightly.
0900ie Grotto Fountain
0901 Grotto
0914 Giant hot period, d=2m54s.  Feather Satellite active; Mastiff overflowed lightly.
1020 Giant hot period, d=8m20s.

This was the strong hot period we were expecting with the Grotto eruption, and we all agreed that it could easily have erupted on less.  Mastiff surged steadily for several minutes, with the highest surges reaching 4-6 feet.  India was completely covered and Cave bubbled to about 4 inches.  Bijou came on before Feather stopped, but we couldn't tell if Mastiff had dropped at that point.  We hoped that Feather would continue but it died rather quickly.  It was off for a little less than a minute before having a restart with some vertical surging, but nothing to get our hopes up.

We thought we saw Mastiff boiling from Grand about 90 minutes later, but by the time Grand had finished, Grotto had been in eruption for nearly 4 hours, so it looked like another marathon.  Grotto was still i.e. when I looked down-basin at 1700.  At least I was not worried that Giant would erupt 15 mintues after I drove away.

It was nice to get one last opportunity to see geysers and friends in the park.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com

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