[Geysers] Brief geyser report May 5

[snorkology at sysmatrix.net]

Hi everyone,

Let me disagree with Scott's statement asserting that a bursting eruption
and a jetting eruption coming from the same vent would be unlikely; What
about Porkchop in the old days? All you need is a pool with a small vent
in the bottom, and for successive eruptions to come from a lower water
level. With most of the pool splashed dry, the small vent produces narrow
jets. And sometimes, as in Spasm, the process happens in reverse as the
water level rises in the pool.

                       Grover Schrayer

> Well, yesterday's weather forcast came true. Though only a dusting of snow
> here in West, there was about 2 inches on the boardwalks at Old Faithful.
> And
> the wind. Whoo! Straight out of the north and very strong. So mostly car
> gazing  and only one brief trip down basin.
>
> Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty windy, too, but then some improvement to
> high temps in the 50s by Tuesday.
>
> Grotto had been in marathon, certainly the eruption that began at 1307
> yesterday. My guess is that it ended in the vicinity of 0500-0600. Thus,
> Giant's
> recovery could happen about right now (1300)... but I happily just had a
> bowl
> of  soup here at home.
>
> I did see Oblong at 0820ie, Plume at 0935.
>
> I watched the geyser at Black Sand for a considerable time this morning.
> Let
> me note that while I saw it doing nothing yesterday afternoon, Barry Leedy
> reports that it was jetting to about 10 feet continuously between 1830 and
> 1900
>  last evening.
>
> This morning it was both on and off for shorter periods than yesterday.
> All
> the eruptions were bursting, usually not more than 3 feet high but a
> couple of
>  times hitting perhaps 8-10 feet. Observations lead me to hypothesize two
> things  (I emphasize, hypothesize):
>
> 1. It might be that a jetting "major" eruption is followed by an inactive
> period. Then a series of bursting minors eventually leads to another
> jetting
> major, these cycles perhaps occupying a few hours.
> 2. The jetting vent might be different from the bursting vent -- to me,
> the
> bursts seem too wide and lazy to come from a vent that can also jet a
> steady
> stream of 10+ feet for an extended time.
>
> Or not.
>
> Scott Bryan
>
>
>
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