[Geysers] Park visit

[Stephen J. Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

I made a quick four day visit to the park Friday to Monday and finally
caught Giant from the start.  More on that later, but Great Fountain was
not acting normally so I thought I'd start by relating what it was
doing.

As background, you know the previous weekend (14-15) Great Fountain was
in wild phase for at least part of the weekend.

I checked on Great Fountain on Friday (10-20) morning at about 0600 and
I first thought I had arrived at a perfect time, most of the first
terrace appeared to be steaming from hot water and I thought I saw water
in the main vent.   However after about five minutes I decided there
wasn't any water in the main vent, I must have mistaken the steam as
water by the light of my car's headlights.  From this I decided Great
Fountain must be post eruptive and I left the area.

I returned to Great Fountain at about 1130 and part of the first terrace
had hot water in it but the main vent was down about a foot.  While in
the upper basin one of the tour guides reported seeing Great Fountain ie
at 1643 on 10-19 so I thought it was early but it looked like Great
Fountain just had a false overflow and had then dropped.  I went out to
check on Fountain but thought it likely Great Fountain would go into
overflow on the next rise.

I got back to Great Fountain at about 1339 (still 10-20-06) and found it
in overflow and boiling lightly.  I talked to a couple who were waiting
and they said it had been in overflow since 1200.  Then they asked me
how many times the level would drop before it erupted.  When I told them
once it went into overflow, it would not drop and the eruption would
occur in about an hour and a half.  They gave me a funny look but didn't
say anything.

After watching Great Fountain for about twenty minutes of overflow with
mild boiling, the water level dropped about a foot.  Hmmm...  I asked
the couple if that was what they were talking about and they said yes,
it had dropped like that three times before I arrived.  I watched Great
Fountain from 1339 until about 1620 when I left for the upper basin to
report a Fountain time and find out anything I could about the wild
phase that occurred the previous week.  During that time it would rise
and overflow (heavily on the initial overflow each time) for about 20-30
minutes, then drop six inches to over a foot, and about ten minutes
later quickly rise up to overflow.  For the first ten minutes of the
overflow the boiling was moderate, but after that the boiling quieted
down and often the boiling was almost missing for some time prior to the
pool dropping.

The visitors center couldn't tell me much at all about the wild phase
the previous week.  I did learn they had already removed the logger from
Great Fountain (anticipating year's end) as so there would be no logger
data to look at.  I returned to Great Fountain at about 1700 and watched
more rise and drops before leaving at about 1830.  I should have
recorded the times on all of this, but it did not occur to me until I
was driving away.

On the morning of 10-21 at about 0635 Great Fountain had hot water in
the first terrace but was again down about a foot.  I assumed it was
still doing the same thing, but I didn't wait to see for sure, I wanted
to get to the upper basin.  I swung by again at 1425 and at that time it
looked like it was in the middle of the cycle, the first terrace had no
hot water in it and the main vent did not have visible water.  Later at
1826 I again watched it do one period of overflow, drop, and rise to
overflow before turning in for the night.

I did not look at Great Fountain on the morning of 10-22, Giant had been
in marathon the previous day and I wanted to get down to see it as soon
as possible.  Later that day while watching Giant erupt I heard a
visitor say to his mate "isn't it great, we get to see Great Fountain
and now we get to see Giant!"  I asked and he said he saw Great Fountain
erupting about 1400 but there were only small bursts so he thought it
must have been late in the eruption.  I could have asked more questions,
but I spent more time just watching Giant and when I decided to ask more
questions the visitor had already walked away.  When I drove by Great
Fountain at sunset on 10-22 it did look like it was in mid-cycle.

On 10-23 Great Fountain was below overflow at 1410 but the first terrace
was steaming from hot water.  I did the loop and returned at 1419 to
find it almost in overflow and I think overflow occurred at 1420.  From
there it gradually increased in boiling somewhat like it should only I
thought it was a little weak until about 1520 when it dropped just about
1.5 to perhaps two inches below overflow.  It rose up at 1527 to
overflow with some stronger boiling for about ten minutes and then the
boiling changed to mostly mild to moderate boiling and mostly coming
from the southwest portion of the main vent.  At 1612 the pool dropped
about a foot.  At 1625 the pool rose up and was again in overflow.  This
time the boiling was a little stronger but still mostly in the southwest
portion of the main vent.  Finally with little warning the 1 meter boil
occurred at 1721 and continued for about a minute until the bursting
started.  The first two burst were very good, one straight up and the
second just as high but slightly slanted, it made the second terrace but
not the road.  The first series lasted until 1730, the second started at
1737 and ended at 1743, it had two bursts of about 50 feet but the rest
of the second series was 40 feet in height or less.  The third eruptive
series started at 1752 and ended at 1757 and it only had two bursts that
may have made 40 feet, the rest of the bursts were lower.  At 1606 there
were two splashes to about 5 feet but that was all, there really was not
a fourth series of eruptions.

For the other details, I must say Giant on 10-22 was almost perfect.  It
was a Giant Function, with a clear blue sky and a reasonable breeze
coming from the Pear Springs group so the viewing was nearly perfect.
Jeff Cross has already reported the info about what preceeded the
eruptions but I would like to cover the Grotto Fountain/Grotto eruption
at 1046 because I was calling it.  Grotto Fountain started at 1046.  For
the first 15 minutes Grotto did nothing at all.  Finally at 1101 Grotto
started putting out water from the cone and the back holes but it was
very weak, it had only about five feet of height above the top of
Grotto's cone.  I know it usually is much stronger (higher) at the start
but I called it because that appeared to be all it was going to do.  I
watched for only a minute or two before going down to Riverside as it
was due.  There was a group of about 8-12 buffalo on and around the
walkway to Giant so I could not return to Giant.  Riverside started at
1112 and at that time Jeff asked if Grotto was off, he couldn't see much
out of it.  I confirmed it was off at 1112, it looked like it had
stopped some minutes before that.  The Grotto Fountain (1502) and Grotto
(1507) just before the Giant eruption were perfectly normal.

Plume was regular, intervals were usually over an hour in the morning
and from about 1000 on were at just about hour intervals each day.

Pink Cone was ie at 0605 on 10-20, i.e at 1910 (late in the eruption) on
10-22 and i.e. at 1411 on 10-23.

Say what you will about the west bubbler(s) on Beehive, but on a cold
morning you can see it's steam cloud from the lower parking lot and know
first thing in the morning that Beehive has not erupted overnight or
early in the morning.  In fact, I now can count five separate bubbling
or steaming vents to the south and west of Beehive.  I don't think
Beehive was seen on 10-20 (I didn't write down the time for 10-19 but I
think it was about 1230).  On 10-21 Beehive indicator was i.e. at 1012
and Beehive erupted at 1024.  On 10-22 Beehive indicator was 1235 and
Beehive was 1247, and on 10-23 Beehive Indicator was 1144 and Beehive
was 1159.

Tilt's Baby is still active up to about 10-15 feet but I didn't manage
to catch a closed interval.  Sawmill mostly ruled the Sawmill group, I
saw one good Tardy cycle but it was ended by a drain with nothing
happening.  Daisy tended to be in the 2 hr 20 minute to 2 hr 50 minute
range for the four days I was in the park regardless of the wind.
However on Friday and Monday I was the only person out with a radio so
several eruptions just were missed.  Riverside stayed in the 6-6.5 hr
range with some 6 hr intervals but more 6.5 hr intervals recorded.  Lion
was active with series of two or three eruptions.  I didn't catch any
closed intervals on Aurum so I do not know if it is winter mode yet.

In the lower basin I saw Fountain at 1249 on 10-20 D=31 and again at
1606 on 10-21 D=30.  On 10-20 I couldn't see Morning's Thief due to
steam but on 10-21 I saw four good bursts to 15-20 feet at 1615.  White
Dome intervals were in the 15-45 minute range.  Pebble was in overflow
10-22 at 1700 and was in overflow at 1410 and 1809 on 10-23.  Gemini was
low with no overflow whenever I saw Pebble in overflow and I saw no
indication of any eruptive activity from Crack however I could have
missed it easily.

And for those interested, it appears the removal of the railing at Aurum
was an act of vandalism.  I asked at the visitors center and was told
that someone went out during the night and cut it down with a saw or
chain saw.  The park police are investigating it as an act of
vandalism.  They hope to have the railing back up before winter season
starts.

Stephen Eide