[Geysers] Geyser report, Aug 14-21

[Tara Cross]

This geyser report will cover odds and ends for the past
week, August 14-21.  It's been blustery the past few days in the park and there may be some rain coming soon.  I knew those perfect sunny days couldn't last.


 

A few things from the Upper Basin:

 

Little Squirt was active on 8/16.

 

Beehive was continuing as usual, moving earlier in the day until
it erupted in the wee hours and then had a short interval to put it back in
daylight.  Beehive erupted at 1147 on 8/20, so we were surprised when it had already erupted by 0600 on 8/21; a visitor reported seeing it from the Inn.  So we are not sure what to expect next.  Indicators have been 13-17
minutes before Beehive.

 

Ralph’s data says that Aurum is ranging from 3-19 hours, so
I felt pretty good about walking up on an eruption on 8/20.  I don’t have any closed intervals in my notebook.

 

Grand has been having more multiple burst eruptions in the
past few days, including two 3-burst eruptions on 8/20.  It has also been having quite a few intervals
in the early side of its window recently.

 

Strong winds may have been responsible for Daisy’s
lengthened intervals on 8/20, which were in the 2h20m-2h30m range rather than
the usual 2 hours.  They were running long again on 8/21; the closed interval of the day was nearly 3 hours.


 

Many of the Grotto starts since I arrived have included
Grotto Fountain.  Nice to have it
erupting more frequently.

 

Avoca Spring continues to have nice eruptions as before.

 

Jeff Cross reported that Dilapidated had some sort of minor
event on 8/19.  Has anyone been out to
check on it this year?

 

Midway
 Basin:

 

A visit to the Rabbit Creek area yielded only one active
geyser, Rabbit Creek Geyser, which had intervals of 23 and 22 minutes.  Tuba Geyser was hot and had cleared out its
vent, but was clearly not active.

 

Lower
 Basin:

 

After I got a closed interval of 5h58m for Fountain on 8/14,
it appeared to be having more intervals in its longer range of 6.5-7
hours.  I’ve been waiting a lot longer
for Fountain on double and triple intervals than I was in late July.  Morning’s Thief continues to erupt along with
Fountain; I have seen either 2 or 3 series with each eruption so far.  An eruption on the evening of 8/16 had an
impressive burst that all observers agreed reached about 60 feet.  Once again, I have seen variable activity
from the rest of the complex; sometimes Jet was having eruptions when I
arrived; other times, it did not start until after—sometimes long
after—Fountain commenced its eruption. 
On 8/18, I got the first Jet 2h39m before the start of Fountain.  I have not detected a pattern in the behavior
of Spasm and Super Frying Pan in relation to Fountain.

 

As before, I have been seeing very little a activity in the
Kaleidoscope Group; only New Thing Far Left, Honey’s Vent, and 2 small vents of
Deep Blue appear to be active.  HOWEVER,
there is some interesting new activity on the west end of the Sprinkler Group.  I don’t know if the features are new blowouts
or new manifestations of older geysers, but I’ll do my best to describe them
and maybe someone will have a better idea what they are.  The more frequent of the two geysers appears
to be near the area of Impatient Miser Geyser. 
Its eruptions begin very suddenly and reach full height (maybe 15-20
feet?) almost immediately, usually lasting 10-20 seconds.  Intervals ranged from 11-19 minutes.  The other, less frequent geyser erupts from
what appears to be a new or newly enlarged crater in the area of the Angle
complex.  It has a pool of water that
appears to have sinter chunks around its edges (from what I could tell with
binoculars).  I have not seen this geyser
every time I’ve waited for Fountain; I think it may erupt in series, as I saw a
group of three eruptions at intervals of 12 and 6 minutes, and then nothing for
at least 50 minutes.  This geyser has a
bursting eruption; the highest bursts reach maybe 10-15 feet.  Its duration is also pretty short—probably
15-20 seconds but I have not yet timed an eruption.  If anyone can give more information on what
these features are and when this activity started, it would be much
appreciated.

 

Shoshone
 Basin:

 

Jeff Cross visited Shoshone 8/16-18 and Dean Lohrenz and I
hiked in for the day on 8/17.  Double is
having nice eruptions again after being in a bit of a funk last year.  Five Crater was active when Shield and Gourd
weren’t pouring runoff into it.  Water
levels are still abysmal in the Orion Group. 
Frill Spring is active, but series intervals are erratic; the range was
4 days to over 10 days and it did not erupt while we were there.  Lion and Slosh are dormant and full of orange
bacteria.  Bead is also sadly dormant;
Terracette Spring has continued its 2000s activity of periodic episodes of
bubbles and thumping, sometimes accompanied by a small splash.  Some runoff from Small Geyser has been
diverted into the collapse above Knobby Geyser, effectively flooding it; it
appears to be having short series of 2-3 eruptions at hours-long
intervals.  The GOOD news is that Velvet
Spring was active and having very nice eruptions every 12-13 minutes.  Dean and I also lucked into an eruption of
The Hydra.  We saw an initial followed by
2 minors; there were no further majors. 
Rototiller continues to be active, but the intervals were longer and
durations were shorter than in 2007.  The
1994 blowout was active in the South Group. 
Outbreak was full of bacteria and looks like it might become filled in
again in the next few years.  There was
no activity of note in the Fall Creek Group. 
Jeff may have a more extensive report later.  By the way, the mosquitoes were out in force by mid-morning; they were as bad as I'd expect them to be on a normal July Shoshone trip.


 

Heart
 Lake Basin:

 

Carlton Cross visited the Fissure Group on 8/20 and saw an
eruption of Glade Geyser.  The data
logger shows that it has been having many intervals in the 24-hour range.

 

 

That’s all I can think of at the moment.  Gazers are starting to arrive in the park; hope to see many of you soon.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com




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