[Geysers] Old Faithful eruption Aug 1st 0224pm webcam

[Moose, Allan E.]

Scott and others,

In order to decide between the two explanations of Trica's picture: (1) It's a new jet; or (2) It's a curtain of falling water, here are two observations: 

A jet will be narrow at the bottom and broaden as it rises, and (2) a falling curtain of water will have to follow one part of the parabolic path that any projectile follows in the earth's gravitational field (when traveling at a speed less than the escape velocity, that is).

Based on these two observations, I come in on the side of "It's a new (though intermittent) jet". To me it appears that the spray of water we're debating is narrow near the ground and broadens as it goes up. Further, suppose that it were a falling curtain of water, then it's path would slope away from the vent of Old Faithful rather than fall towards it as it is doing in the picture. Draw a parabola on a piece of paper and hold it with the vertex up. No matter how you rotate it around its axis, the branches of the parabola will not appear to slope towards each other.


Allan Moose  


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From: geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu [geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu] On Behalf Of TSBryan at aol.com [TSBryan at aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 7:26 PM
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Subject: Re: [Geysers] Old Faithful eruption Aug 1st 0224pm webcam

Tricia, thanks so much for posting this. Now, everybody else -- is this an eruptive jet or something else. i ask becaue when I was still in the park, sometime during June, I had a person ask me if that jet next to Old Faithful had a name of its own. I basically said "What jet?". Now, I wonder.

Scott Bryan

In a message dated 8/1/2009 4:08:55 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, triciamiller at tiscali.co.uk writes:
I noticed the attached picture on the webcam today.

Tricia Miller



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