[Geysers] Fan & Mortar 1834 8/12--Stephens

[Lynn Stephens]

Fan & Mortar had another short interval--probably about 2 days 18 hours.  (Based on the state of recovery at 05:45 on 8/10 with River Vent having short cycles and Main Vent huffing but not splashing water, I estimated somewhere about midnight 8/9-8/10 for the last eruption.)
 
John Slivka had called Daisy at 1613 and Karol Slivka called Riverside (for those of you who don't know, probably her favorite geyser).  They returned to the Lower Ham's (sorry, but I still use old terminology), said their goodbyes, loaded their bikes in the van under Dick Powell's supervision, and headed for the cabin to start loading refrigerator, microwave, etc.  
 
I have not yet gotten the first Atomizer minor after a major, and had a chance to do so this evening, so I grabbed a sweater, sweatpants, hat, blue jacket, and book to go up to Artemisia/Atomizer.  As I rode across the bridge at F&M I noticed that Bottom Vent was splashing vigorously with runoff halfway to the river, Lower Mortar was fuzz-balling, River Vent was on, but Gold and Angle were off at 1735.  Main Vent splashed at 1736.  I got on the radio to announce that I didn't know what had been going on, but Main Vent was splashing.  Thankfully John and Karol hadn't loaded the microwave and refrigerator yet, heard the radio call, and drove back to Lower Ham's to unload the bikes and come down to Fan & Mortar.
 
At 1737 River Vent turned off, for what I decided was a River Vent pause.  Main Vent continued to splash.  Bottom Vent also continued to splash, but the splashing never became a sustained eruption.
 
River Vent turned on at 1742, Main Vent continued to splash.  river Vent turned off 12 minutes later, and Main Vent continued to splash.  At 1757 Main Vent had an "Oh my God" splash that had me leaping off the bench.  Main Vent continued to splash.
 
River Vent turned on at 1759 and still Main Vent continued to splash.  At 1802 it had a splash that filled the vent.  The last Main Vent splash I noted was at 1804.  Gold held off 12 minutes, turning on at 1811.  Angle held off another three minutes before burbling on.  At 1822 High and Gold were in a lock.  They stayed in lock for the next 12 minutes.  At 1828 Main Vent started having a few sporadic weak splashed.  At 1830 Main Vent had a huge vent filling splash, but didn't trigger the eruption.  Main Vent was also making "booming" sounds during the lock.  Finally, at 1834 Main Vent surged once or twice and then took off.
 
The wind was blowing toward the boardwalk (there were beautiful rainbows, but most of them were opposite the bumper logs).  I couldn't see East Vent from where I was standing, but Slivka's confirmed that it took a few seconds before East Vent joined in the eruption.  The road was soaked to the bumper logs opposite Spiteful.  So, instead of the Aurum that Karol called at 1719ie being their last geyser of the season, John and Karol were rewarded with an eruption of Fan & Mortar.
 
Beehive was 0902.  I watched it from near Blue Star Spring and had a nice rainbow.
 
After Beehive I tried to go to Great Fountain, but Firehole Lake Drive was closed.  I drove back to Flood and asked MaryBeth to relay the information that the road was closed.  Great Fountain was not ie at 0925, was ie at 0935.  No one could tell me whether the road would be closed again tomorrow.
 
The other event of note--North Dwarf finally turned off sometime today or last night.
 
Lynn Stephens
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