[Geysers] Fan & Mortar 8/30/08 & other things

[Tara Cross]

First things first, Fan & Mortar erupted at 1356 on August 30, 2008.  I will post a more detailed report later, but in summary, there had been NO events for 30 hours, with mostly long cycles (River on 20-55 minutes) with Angle splashing during the River off periods.  Finally there was an aberration--Angle shut off, and there were two "coughs," followed by huffing in Main Vent.  About 5 minutes later I was thrilled to announce that there was splashing in Main Vent.  It didn't last very long, but was nice while it lasted.  When River came on, there was immediately water in High, and it looked like Gold was going to start also.  Then Main Vent started huffing again, and it looked like it might have a Gold pause.  But then Angle had several splashes.  Main Vent had a final splash 7 minutes after River started, but then gave up after a few more huffs and Gold finally came on 13 minutes after River.  We were not feeling very optimistic about the cycle until the water levels were looking quite good 8 minutes after the start of Gold.  I made a call that water levels were holding, then a minute later that High was erupting steadily, then at 1349 the vents were in lock.  At 1353 Main Vent had some large splashes, and as with many of the recent eruptions, Main Vent surging initiated the eruption at 1356.  Once again Mortar did not do anything for about 2 minutes, allowing for excellent viewing of the start of Fan.  It was a real soaker--everyone was staying "safe" on the bridge until Mortar got going and then it hosed everybody.  What fun!

A few other notes--Beehive erupted sometime in the wee hours of August 30, then again at 1625.

Just after Beehive was finished, Brian Roskuski called that there was a bathtub at Giant.  I didn't get all of the exact details but I guess Bijou was off for 3 minutes with water in Mastiff.  Several other Bijou pauses were seen later in the day, with water reaching above the "elbow" in the GIP.  It looks like Giant might be trying to start having hot periods again.

I will post full details of Fan & Mortar's August 26 and August 30 eruptions in a few days.

--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/20080831/ea4e2226/attachment.html>