[Geysers] Late Geyser report

[Stephen J. Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

My daughter and I were in the park August 19-25 and spend about two
thirds of that time in Shoshone geyser basin.  I was planning on posting
this sooner, but I had to work several 16 hour days to make up for my
park visit when I returned and then I misplaced my geyser notebook so
I'm late.  I won't talk much about the upper or lower basin, that has
already been covered and is all old news now.  However I did notice when
looking at Silex Spring on 8-19 and 8-20 that there were occasional
steam bubbles forming and collapsing in the bottom of the pool giving
the flame-like effect you can see in some other springs.  In talking to
others I guess this happens from time to time, but I don't remember
seeing this effect any time in the last four or five years in Silex.
Then again, maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention.

Anyway, we were in Shoshone 8-22, 8-23, and the morning of 8-24 and
looked at most everything but the Western group.  With the help of the
Cross's article in Transactions VIII and Scott Bryan's book (thank you
very much!) we spent most of the first day just trying to put names on
most of the features we were seeing.  We did get to see the end of a
series of eruptions by Frill spring, they were 8 to 14 minutes apart
with the exception of the interval before the final eruption which was
29 minutes.  I must admit is is possible that is a double interval, we
may have been looking the wrong way at the wrong time.  We did not
measure the duration of the Frill eruptions, but they were less than 30
seconds.  I estimated the height at about 25 feet.

Here is a basic summary of most of the rest of the activity:

We spent almost no time in the Little Giant group, only Trio on the side
of Meander was seen i.e.

In the Minute Man group Skylight, Shield, Gourd, Minute Man, and Five
Crater Hot Spring were seen erupting.  If you want more details, e-mail
me.  Soap Kettle was boiling in it's crater, but I never saw any
overflow or splashing out of the crater and I never saw any water on the
sinter outside of the crater.  Little Bulger only boiled weakly whenever
I looked at it.  No activity was seen in Minute Man's pool, but not much
time was spent watching it either.

No activity was seen in the Orion or Camp group besides some perpetual
spouters in the Camp group.  Island group had no erupting features but
several active hot springs.

One pool in the Yellow Crater group was erupting, it was a pool in the
northwest section of the group about 10-12 feet in diameter with a small
log across the southwest side of the pool.  It was erupting from two
vents to 1-2 feet high with an interval of 60-90 seconds and a duration
of about 30-50 seconds.  I have the GPS co-ordinates if anyone wants
them.

In the Shore group Burning Eyes Geyser was active with intervals of
about 85 seconds and durations of 50-60 seconds.  There is a depression
in the sand about 20 feet to the southwest of Burning Eyes (about 3 feet
in from the start of the vegetation) but no activity in this
depression.  The sand in the depression was mighty hot however.

In the South Group Flake Spring, Rocco's #12, #9, and #10 were all seen
i.e. at some time.  There is also a new hole between and above #9 and
#10, it looks like a recent blow-out with sinter chunks around it.  No
activity was seen in Outbreak.  Diverted just bubbled gently whenever we
looked at it, as did Coral Pool,

In the North Group Iron Conch was active, Bronze Geyser just boiled
gently but did not erupt, and Old Lion also just boiled gently.  As I
said earlier, Frill Spring was erupting.  Knobby had many eruptions
while we were there.  Snail and Fissure were erupting but I didn't get
any intervals.  Pearl Spring, Grotto Spring, and Slosh were not seen to
have any eruptive activity.  Mangled Crater Spring was active with
intervals of about 90 minutes but I rarely got the start time, the
interval is based on multiple i.e. times.  The little geyser besides
Rocco's North Group #61 was active, either you consider it a perpetual
spouter or perhaps a geyser with an interval of 1-2 seconds, a duration
of less than a second, and a height of 3-4 inches.  I did catch a
picture so I am attaching it.  Small Geyser was either a perpetual
spouter that intermittently overflowed or a geyser with a 0-1 foot
height and erratic intervals, I couldn't decide which.  I timed four
intervals on Bead and they were in the 73-78 minute range.  The five
durations I timed were in the 95 to 107 second range.  Yellow Sponge,
Yellow Sponge Crack, and Yellow Sponge Cone were hot but quiet.  "Troll
Spouter" appeared to be a perpetual spouter.  Velvet spring just boiled
intermittently, I should have an interval for the boiling but I don't.
Hydra did erupt overnight between 8-23 and 8-24 but we didn't get to see
it.  No eruptions were seen from Brown Sponge, Chocolate Geyser, or Glen
Spring.

Of note in the North Group is one of the springs in the very north end
of the North Group that appeared to be having new eruptive activity.  I
think it is Rocco's #15 a and b.  These two pools (but apparently one
spring) were cloudy on 8-22 when I first looked at them with dead grass
for 2-5 feet around the pools and along the edge of the run off
channels.  Flake to fist side chunks of sinter were found on top of the
grass and on the edges of the runoff channel (I'll try to attach a
picture).  On 8-23 the water had cleared somewhat but an hour later
after I visited the Yellow Crater group and returned the water was
cloudy again.  A stream of cool water from both natural springs and Glen
Spring runs in two channels, one around 15a and one into 15a.  Most of
the run off goes around 15a, but it looks like in the Spring with higher
runoff levels a significant portion of the runoff would go into 15a.  On
8-24 at 1033 the northwest vent in 15a started to boil 6-12 inches
high.  It continued with this boiling at varying levels of intensity
until 1145.  The larger pool of 15b appears (through the cloudy water)
to have three vents, one in the middle of the pool (vent 1), one about
half way between the middle of the pool and the East southeast edge of
the pool (vent 2) and one under the east edge of the pool (vent 3).  At
1053 I noticed increased but still weak boiling in vent 1 and 2 of 15b
and the pool level would gradually rise and fall about 1-1.5 cm.  The
boiling was usually more intense then the water level rose.  This
activity increased gradually over the next hour with almost continuous
boiling 1 foot high in the northwest vent of 15a and intermittent
activity in in vent 2 of 15b.  Every 3-10 minutes there would be a short
period of increased overflow and strong boiling in vent 2 of 15b.
Finally at 1145 vent 2 of 15b gave a short eruption of about 2 feet
high, much like a small eruption of Solitary geyser.  Only a small
amount of water washed up on the grass around the pools.  Then over the
next two minutes both 15 a & b gradually quit boiling.  From the wash
and dead grass it must be possible for it to do much larger eruptions in
both height and water output. However, at this time my daughter started
having an allergic reaction to something so we decided to start walking
out of the area and I don't have any closed intervals for #15.  The time
from the increased cloudiness on 8-23 to the eruption on 8-24 was about
20 hours but I don't know if this was one interval or several intervals.

Stephen Eide

P.S. it seems I can't attach the pictures, for some reason my computer
won't read or copy the data on the CD.