[Geysers] Trip report (mostly Fountain)

[Stephen J. Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

I had a short trip to the park June 20-23.  I got there just in time to
find out Giant and Beehive had already erupted.  Everything I saw in the
upper basin has already been reported so I'll just give you the data on
Fountain.  I saw Fountain on 6-20 at 1625 ie off at 1645, 6-21 1502 d=31
and 2047 ie, 6-22 0820 d=31, 1358 d=29, 1948 ns off at 2017, 6-23 0703
d=32 and 1350 d=29.  If you look at Ralph's latest data you will see it
shows an average interval of about six hours with a tight range of 5 to
7 hours.  The duration is about 30 minutes.  It appears over the last
two months Fountain has not only shorted its interval but become much
more dependable.

Sometimes I saw Spasm before Fountain, sometimes not.  If Spasm did
erupt it was usually a short 10-12 minute eruptions but I did catch one
about twice that long.  If Spasm erupts with a 10-12 minute duration and
an hour and a half passes without Fountain, Spasm will usually erupt
again at that point.

Jet usually has eruptions every 6-10 minutes for minutes to two hours
prior to Fountain but not always.  Interesting enough, the eruption the
morning of 6-23 had no Jet for the hour prior to Fountain starting at
703, and my first Jet eruption during Fountain happened 31 minutes into
Fountains eruption (735).  Aftet that I saw Jet at 737, 744, 749, 754,
759, 806, 813, 823, 834, 845, and 853.  I was in the area about 12
minutes after that then left.

For this visit (and my May visits) the Fountain rise started from a low
to very low pool.  A few times I could barely see water in the bottom of
Fountain when the rise started and once the first time I saw water in
Fountain was when I saw the rise.

Morning's Thief had big bursts on only one of the eight eruptions I saw
this trip but the one I saw was nice, two bursts to perhaps 35-40 feet.
Morning's Thief usually has boiling and perhaps some low (zero to
fifteen feet) eruption at about five minutes into Fountain and again at
about 10-12 minutes into Fountain but it appears the big bursts are now
occuring at about 18 minutes into Fountain.  I must admit this is based
on a very small data set from May and June so the chance I am giving
incorrect estimates on when Morning's Thief will erupt is quite large.

So, it appears right now the best predictor of when Fountain will erupt
is the time of the last eruption.  Seeing Spasm is good, but not
required and when Spasm is seen Fountain can erupt minutes to two hours
after Spasm starts.  Frequent Jets (6-10 minute range) are usually good,
but may start two hours or more before Fountain and may occur for an
hour or more after Fountain erupts so you still have to look for signs
of a recent eruptions (easy during the day, not as easy at dawn).

Of course, this being Fountain the pattern may not hold for long, but I
hope it does.  It would be nice to have a dependable Fountain to see
while I'm in the park.

Stephen Eide