[Geysers] F&M July 30

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS POST IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT.  Tara may reprint the data as needed.

 

July 30 eruption of Fan & Mortar.

 

When I arrived for my shift at 05:49 and River Vent, Gold and Angle were all on.  River Vent turned off at 06:17.  River Vent turned on again at 06:31, with Gold following almost instantaneously at 06:31. My notes indicate that "Angle never quit leading into that cycle.  Angle did pause at 06:55 when Main Vent huffed once or twice, but started splashing again within just a few minutes.  Angle was splashing before River Vent and Gold turned on at 07:00 and continued splashing after River Vent and Gold turned off at 07:10.  Angle continued to splash until 07:25.

 

Bottom Vent began having a few spits at 07:36.  Main Vent started huffing at 07:38 and had a roar at 07:47.  River Vent would occasional emit light steam.  As Tara says, the action was like Main Vent and River Vent were fighting for control with neither one being able to assert dominance.

 

Angle Vent restarted at 07:53.  River Vent turned on at 07:54 and Gold turned on at 07:55.  Perhaps in hindsight the Main Vent huffing and puffing should have been called, but we've seen lots of it before that, without Main Vent splashing and usually a pause or two, never resulted in an eruption.

 

I had the contents of my pack strewn about the bench and was sewing when I noticed the water levels in High and Gold were looking good, but it was only a few minutes in and I expected the water levels to decline.  After all, there had been no Gold pause, no River Vent pause, no Main Vent splashing, no eruption of any type from Bottom Vent.

 

Instead, the water levels kept getting better.  At 10 minutes into River Vent I got on the radio, fully expecting I was building up false hopes when I announced I was confused because there had been no events, but water levels were looking very good.  Water levels kept improving and I kept making announcements that water levels were getting better.  At one point I apparently said that people should hurry if they were coming down.  Some time in here I announced that East Vent had started steaming.  At 08:11 I announced the vents were in a lock.  A couple minutes later (I forgot to record the time), I announced Angle had run out of water and turned to steam, but I knew that was not necessarily a bad sign.  Water levels in High and Gold generally kept getting better although about four minutes into the lock they started to drop.  Water levels came back though, then Main Vent filled the vent, but East Vent beat Main Vent into full eruption at 08:16.

 

Fan's water only went about 5-6 feet beyond the boardwalk but it was a beautiful eruption.  The sky was blue and there was very little wind.  (The lack of wind may have been part of why the water wasn't pushed beyond the boardwalk very far.)  We had intense double rainbows.  For the first few minutes I was able to stand where I could see both Fan's Vents and Upper and Lower Mortar before the water shifted.

 

I had stuffed a few items into my pack, then just threw my blue waterproof jacket over the pack and the rest of the stuff, leaving them on the bench because at first I didn't think F&M would really erupt without at least one or more Main Vent splashes.  Then  I didn't want to take time away from watching the vents to move the pack to a place of safety.  Everything happened so quickly compared to the "usual" 39-101 minutes of events leading up to the eruption that I was more worried about not fulfilling my "babysitting" duties than I was about my backpack.  The coat ended up getting thoroughly drenched but the contents of the pack stayed dry.

 

The first complete pause came at the 15-16 minute mark.  (Again, I looked at my watch and mentally noted the pause occurred when I expected, but forgot to write down the time.)  I thought the eruption had ended at about the 30 minute mark, but several of us were still standing around talking when several minutes later a burst threw out additional water.  Total duration of water was 38 minutes.

 

For all our sakes, I hope we don't have any more of these eruptions because without event cycles we're back to brute force Fan & Mortar gazing where we each have to stay there all the time if we want to see an eruption.

 

Lynn Stephens

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