[Geysers] Trip report

[Stephen J. Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

A few notes about Yellowstone from Monday 4-30 to Thursday 5-3.  Plume
had intervals of about 50 minutes, four to five bursts and very
dependable. I stopped to look at Salt and Pepper a few different times,
on 4-30 they were more powerful, about 3 feet high and Pepper was
tossing up dark material.  The other times they were lower and Pepper
had less dark material but still had some.  If I have time on my next
visit it may be interesting to just sit on it for a while and see if
there is a cyclic nature to the height or intensity of the eruptions (or
to the amount of material in Pepper). Jewel appeared to be normal, the
only interval I have was six minutes.

I have several Fountain eruptions,  on 4-30 at 1213 D=33 and 1943 D=33,
5-1 at 1003 D=39, 5-2 at 1000 D=32 and 1757 D=32, and 5-3 at 1134 D=34.
Assuming no short eruptions (which may not be a good assumption) the
intervals appear to be 7.5 to perhaps 9 hours.  I wonder what Ralphs
latest data download will show.  All the eruptions were from a low pool,
one from a very low pool.  Spasm was in a different pattern than I am
used to the times when I saw it.  Spasm's eruptions were short, in the
11 to 16 minute range and the four times I saw it the eruption stopped
just before it reached overflow.  The one time I was in the Fountain
area the longest Spasm had a 12 minute eruption, then a second 12 minute
eruption an hour and a half later, and was trying to erupt an hour and
ten minutes later when Fountain started.  Jet was normal.  Clepsydra
never shut off, but did drop some and go into a steam phase in the back
vents about 15 minutes into Fountain.

>From the Fountain overlook I did see Honey's vent, Angle (at least I
think it was Angle) and #12 in Deep Blue frequently.  I did not see
Kaleidoscope, Firehose, or New Thing Far Left ever.  There is something
else erupting frequently between Deep Blue and NTFL, about 40% of the
way from Deep Blue to NTFL.  The eruptions look alot like Honey's vent
in size and shape.  Drain perhaps?

>From the times I recorded, it appeared Riverside did mostly shorts over
these four days but I never managed to see it close up.  Scott has
already covered the info on Grand, Oblong, Grotto, and Daisy.

The Giant eruption on 5-1 started with the hot period at 1859.  Mastiff
rose quickly to a light overflow immediately with Feather, Feather Sat.,
SW vents and Rust.  At about the two minute mark Mastiff started a good
overflow and kept it up the remainder of the GHP.  Mastiff varied
between six inches and four feet for the first eight minutes, then at
about eight and a half minutes it went to varying between four feet and
the height of Giant's cone.  At 1910 Mastiff started erupting but it
never made it above about 1.5 times the height of Giant's cone.  After
several cone filling surges Giant started at 1911.  It ended at 2049 for
a D=98 minutes.

On 5-2 I made a quick survey of Norris.  Congress pool is full and
overflowing and a beautiful blue color.  The water less opalescent than
last year.  I did see two eruptions of Constant Geyser at 1443 and
1457.  There was another geyser erupting behind Constant in the area of
Fan/Fireball but I'm not sure what it was.  It erupted to about three
feet in the shape of a "V" with the stronger vent pointed to the
museum.  The eruption started prior to my arrival and was still going
when I walked away for an duration of over 20 minutes.

Forgotten Fumerole was just steaming and there was no sign of mud or
ejecta on the plant life nearby.  Rubble appears to be inactive with
pine cones and pine needles in the run off channel.  Veteran was only
giving off minor bursts to a few feet.  Corporal appeared to be active
but I didn't wait on it.  Vixen just made noise.  Pearl is different
again.  The opalescence is back but the color of the bowl is changing
again.  The light beige of the last few years is still in the outer
parts of the basin, but the throat is now a darker brown.  So far there
is no change in the color of the newer springs on the other side of the
boardwalk.  There appears to still be four or five active geysers in the
area of Orbicular however I only saw two of them (not Orby this time).
Yellow Funnel Spring is perhaps a bit bigger (the size of the hole at
least) and just splashing muddy water a foot or two high.  Tantalus
Geyser was almost clear and boiling lightly.  Crater Spring was just
below overflow and lightly boiling,  Echinus was in overflow.  I watched
it for about 40 minutes.  About every 4 minutes it would rise up
slightly and boil heavier but it did not erupt.  These periods of strong
boiling did not appear to be building up to an eruption, but I could be
wrong.  It'll be nice to see Ralph's data on this too.

Steamboat was having some south and some north minors, I didn't watch it
for long.

With the previous report on the new geysers I think that's about it.  I
hope to return the week before Memorial Day.

Stephen Eide
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