[Geysers] Fan & Mortar 8/24/08 details

[Tara Cross]

Sorry that this is belated--what follows are the details of the events prior to Fan & Mortar's eruption at 0856 on August 24, 2008.

After F&M had been under observation since about 1200 on 8/23, the first known event cycle was observed starting with splashing in Main Vent at about 2340.  The event cycle actually didn't turn out to be very strong.  River Vent came on about 35 minutes after the first good roar from Main Vent, but even though Main continued to huff and splash for about 15 minutes after River, it could not get it shut off for a pause.  Gold started 20 minutes after River, and the water levels died within a few minutes after that.

After getting a short nap, I returned to Fan & Mortar at 0300 and watched until 0540 and passed my information along to Jim Scheirer who arrived at Hams just before 0600.  I am confident that no intervening events occurred between midnight and when Jim started calling splashing in Main Vent.  Events progressed as follows (thanks to Jim for this information):

0727 Main Vent splash
0739 River on
0739 Bottom Vent #1
0744 River off, River pause
0745 Bottom Vent #2 (d~4m)
0755 Bottom Vent #3
0755 River on
0803 River off, double River pause
0807 Bottom Vent #4 (d~11m)
0821 Bottom Vent #5 (d~10m)
0833 River on, pause lasted 30 minutes
0836 Gold on, followed shortly by Angle
0847 Lock, this time the vents went into lock very quickly
0856 Main Vent began a series of large splashes
0856 FAN and MORTAR

The last three eruptions I have seen have been initiated by large surges in Main Vent.  Lock has also been lasting a long time--9 minutes each on 8/16, 8/21, and 8/24.  Mortar did have its initial surges this time, but once again didn't start in earnest until about 3 minutes later.  There was not much wind to blow the steam away, but there were lots of rainbows and good views from either side.

As I write, we have passed the 2-day mark, so the wait begins again.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com

_________________________________________________________________
Get ideas on sharing photos from people like you.  Find new ways to share.
http://www.windowslive.com/explore/photogallery/posts?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Photo_Gallery_082008
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20080826/44fd28e4/attachment.html>