[Geysers] UNNG near Occasional

[Neil Cochran]

I witnessed what is probably the same crater erupting in early August 2000. The crater was very close to a gray sign with red painted engraved letters reading "Dangerous Thermal Area" (a sign on a thin post and not one of those signs attached to a log on the ground). The crater and sign were at least 20 feet south of Occasional Geyser along the road. The crater was close to the road and it had rocks spread around it that appeared to have been ejected at some earlier point. The water level in the crater was about a foot below overflow every time I watched the feature. This was the same week that Silex Spring was experiencing renewed eruptive activity, so I never spent more than an hour in the vicinity of Occasional Geyser or this feature but I still managed to see several brief splashing eruptions every time I visited that area. 

During the eruption the water splashed upward only on the south end of the pool to at most a foot over the water level. The water level did not change during or after the eruption, and the surface of the pool looked hot but was not agitated until the splashing eruption began. The duration of the eruption was significantly less than one minute and the interval was less than 30 minutes.  

I could easily see into this crater while standing on the shoulder of the road, so it was very near the road and it had rocks spread around it thrown out by something more powerful than I witnessed. Some of the rocks were roughly the size of a softball, and the debris seemed to be mostly within about five feet of the crater. The area around the feature was dry enough to suggest that there wasn't any recently unseen activity that was more powerful. 
Neil Cochran

> From: Jeff.Cross at wallawalla.edu
> To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:07:00 -0800
> Subject: [Geysers] UNNG near Occasional
> 
> Years ago, I remember being at Occasional Geyser and noticing that a crater to the right of Occasional (and much nearer to the road) had thrown out a large quantity of rubble.  I have recently been informed that this crater is NOT Guidebook Spring.
> 
> Therefore, I am wondering:
> 
> 1) Does this crater have  a name?
> 2) Has anyone actually seen it erupt?
> 
> Jeff Cross
> jeff.cross at wallawalla.edu_______________________________________________
> Geysers mailing list
> Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> 

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