[Geysers] Geyser report May 11

[TSBryan at aol.com]

First the good news: at 1054, the rangers opened the UGB trails, including  
Biscuit Basin.
 
Potential bad news: the big griz that has been hanging out at Midway was at  
1315 about 1/2 mile south of Steel Bridge -- too close for my liking.
 
Bad news #1: The Fan and Mortar markers are in place (1116).
 
Bad news #2: The Giant signs are in place; Giant has not erupted since  April 
29. As I am about to hit the send buttom, this is eleven minutes short of  12 
full days.
     I don't quite know how to explain this, but... a  couple of weeks ago I 
posted a new Giant chart on which I interpreted one  stretch with three 
eruptions, then a stretch with two eruptions. I am going to  retract that 
interpretation and, sorry, but will not be surprised if Giant  erupted only in late 
March, on April 16 (which still is only probable?), and on  April 29. Here's why I 
say this:
     Back on May 3 we had that hot period on which I  thought Giant tried to 
erupt. Later that day was the series of hot periods  during which Bijou failed 
to turn off (or even weaken in most cases), sort of  culminating with the 
strange hot period when Cave reached 3 to 4 feet along with  Feather, Satellite 
and SW vents but zero from Turtle, Slit, Rust, and the  Postholes. Also on that 
day was the heavy overflow by North and East Purple  Pools.
     The next day, May 4, very clearly was a Grotto  marathon recovery. What 
was undoubtedly the marathon recovery hot period took  place at 1135 and had a 
whopping duration of about 3 minutes. There was not  another event (a 
bathtub) until 1521, then a weak hot period at 1613 that  had only Feather and SW 
vents for a duration of 3m 15s.
     The trails were closed on May 5 and remained so  until this morning. As 
noted, today the sign logs are exactly where they were on  May 4. With the 
trail opening, I was on-site at 1108.
     Mastiff was depth charging but the platform looked  very dry. The more I 
looked, the more I said "Oh, oh." At 1137 water was rising  in Mastiff. It 
rose to about 6 inches below overflow, held for around 3 minutes,  and then 
dropped. Bijou never turned off. At 1237, water rose in Mastiff to  about 6 inches 
below overflow, held for maybe 2 minutes this time, then dropped.  Bijou 
never turned off. At no time was there drooling in Feather or sputtering  in 
Southwest. Between these bathtubs, the standing water in The GIP was at least  1 
foot below the elbow.
     Meanwhile, Oblong seemed to again be going through  the frequent 
overflows, dropping only an inch or so between them. North Purple  Pool was 
overflowing enough to see the water hit the river. AND ( ? very  significant) South 
Purple not only was not overflowing, but in 40-degree air it  showed only bare 
wisps of steam.
     Methinks something happened.
-----------
Meanwhile:
 
I only caught two Plume intervals, 44 and 47 minutes.
 
Beehive's Indicator was 0751ie on my arrival, Beehive at 0757.
 
Depression 0826.
 
Lion was in-series, with 0759, 0854 minor, 0914 minor, 0946 (full),  and then 
another one called when I was down basin and failed to write it  down.
 
Aurum erupted around 0915, when I was in the woods, and again at  1300.
 
At roughly 0930, I could not see water in Giantess; in Vault the level was  
down about 1 foot below the rim.
 
Castle 1015 major.
 
Grand 0850, another 1-burst (-1Q, d~11 3/4 min). Rift started either during  
or just after Grand.
 
Did not see Oblong today, as noted above.
 
Did not see Daisy, but it erupted about when I was at F&M, at roughly  1120.
 
Riverside then decided to start when I was up looking at non-eruptive  
Splendid, 1129ns.
 
Scott Bryan



**************Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists on family 
favorites at AOL Food.      
(http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20080511/1fb13654/attachment.html>