[Geysers] Yellowstone July 6 (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

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The big news of 7/6 , of course was Giantess at 0713.  Scott saw a big boil, then the water from the parking lot.  Eric Hatfield was at Blue Star Spring and heard/felt the thumps.  I was in the Lower Basin.  When I called in Great Fountain's start time (0656) with a prediction of 14 hours due to the long duration of Great Fountain, the response I received included a comment about checking out the Giantess eruption.  I used the FRS radio to tell Stephen Eide, who was at Fountain (0720, 1332, and 2008 7/6) and Maureen Edgerton, who was on her way in from West Yellowstone, so we could all return to the Upper Basin.

 

Others told me Giantess had a "compressed" start, going quite quickly in the initial burst, then to steam, then to mixed steam and water.  The mixed steam/water didn't start having pauses until about 1015, and those were pauses of only a few seconds.  At 1123 there was a pause of about 2 minutes.  At 1150 the water started bursting without mixed steam.  This continued until 1159, when the first true long pause occurred.  Giantess stayed quiet until 1227 when it started jetting again.  As of 0520 this (7/7) morning, Giantess was still jetting water.

 

Despite the ominous clouds, I stayed on Geyser Hill because I wanted to see the Vault initial.  Beehive's Indicator was at 1110, with Beehive at 1131.  (Beehive was at 2347 on 7/5).  I watched Beehive from the boardwalk near Infant.  When I arrived on Geyser Hill at 0840, Infant was almost full, quite muddy, gently bubbling, and very smelly.  (Many visitors commented on the "dead fish" smell from the burned algae.)  The bubbly in Infant gradually increased over the day.  Beehive erupted again (7/6) at 2234 (if I heard the radio call correctly.)

 

Most gazers had never seen a Vault initial and didn't realize that it would start from an empty crater.  The thumps started at 1209.  The water gradually became visible, bouncing up and down as it rose slightly with each bounce upward--sort of like two steps forward, one step back, with each step being a fraction of an inch.  Rocco P. said he wished he'd had a video because he claimed I was bouncing up and down in time with it, encouraging it.  The water finally crested at 1211 with overflow all around Vault's crater.  The overflow washed large pieces of sinter down both the northwest and southeast faces.  The bursting started at 1212 and lasted 20 minutes.  The only other Vault eruption I heard reported was at 1353ie.

 

Little Cub (based on the 5 times noted by MaryBeth S. and myself) did not appear to have been affected as of 1346.  I'm told there was a Lion initial about the time of Giantess, but it did not make it into the logbook.  As of 6:00 on 7/7, the only Lion eruption noted in the logbook is 0645 (minor).

 

Plate was having frequent eruptions--08:14, 09:32, 10:27, and 12:04.  

 

Plume intervals were impacted shortly after the start of Giantess for one interval, then apparently not impacted again until about 7 hours after the start of Giantess.  Eruption times/intervals--06:57, 07:58 (61), 08:30 (32), 09:32 (62), 10:30 (58), 11:25 (55), 12:23 (58), 13:21 (58), 14:10 (49).  The next entries in the logbook are for 15:55, then 18:28, so I'm not certain what happened after that.  

 

The entry in the logbook for Little Squirt reads 1421ns, but I'm relatively certain that should be 16:21ns and will check with Dan and Tricia Miller who reported the eruption.

 

Lynn Stephens

 

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