[Geysers] 7/31

[Ben Hoppe]

All times, unless otherwise noted, are from Friday, July 31.

I slept in today, so I do not know what the morning weather was like,
but after noon today, it was overcast, and very cool. As I was doing
my usual daily bike around the basin to figure out where everything
was in its cycle (for example: Grotto was in the middle of an off
cycle, Link was past peak overflow, Riverside was not overflowing,
Oblong had an empty crater, etc.), it was beginning to rain, but as I
was approaching Castle, it stopped, so I stopped. After I had been at
Grand for a few minutes, the sun began to come out, and it got very
nice. When it was time for Great Fountain, and after Great Fountain,
it was the perfect weather for a run, so I took advantage of it. Good
thing I did too, I caught a Lion eruption that was mid-series, and my
first Depression start of the year from up close at 2053!

I will start with the three items of most importance today. I am not
sure how to rank them, so I will do this chronologically.

Grand erupted this morning at 0606, and again at 1458. The 1458 was a
<u>one</u> burst eruption. I was not there, but I was told by Suzanne
Strasser that it was a d=~9m15s, and it tried to have a second burst.
The pool was there for about 2 minutes, but then Vent took over. In
the mean time, Rift began at 1512. All the sudden, I heard over the
radio Mary Beth saying very enthusiastically "I think it's trying to
have an after-burst!!!" Sure enough, it did. You could hear other
gazers in the background when Mary Beth called the after-burst over
the radio, I did not catch the time. I want to say 1513? But yes, it
was a 1+1 eruption. If I understood correctly, that is the first ever
documented after-burst following a one burst Grand. Paul Strasser said
that it was almost trying to have a second after-burst.

The second piece of interesting news was Fountain. It had an eruption
at 1250 this afternoon (per Tara). The Strassers and I were at Great
Fountain at about 1745, waiting for the meter boil. I decided to watch
a movie in my car for awhile. At 1806, I got out of my car, and saw
the steam cloud from Fountain. We were all surprised. I have it
written down as 1806ie, but I think it might be a near start. Even so,
the interval was hardly over 5 hours.

That piece of information leads into the next. Tara was planning on
getting to Fountain at the 5.5 hour mark of the interval,
unfortunately for her, Fountain did not cooperate. Tara still went to
Fountain, despite seeing the steam cloud from her car. She then saw
eruptions from Vent #12 and #13 in Deep Blue. She passed on this
information to us via radio at Great Fountain. After the 3rd burst at
Great Fountain, I went took a right from Firehole Lake Drive, and used
the pullout on the southbound side of the road to view the
Kaleidoscope Group. I arrived around 1850 or so. At 1857, I saw #12
have an eruption. I did not catch a picture of this eruption, but
there was a second eruption at 1859. I did get a picture of this
eruption, and I will post it online hopefully sometime soon. It's
difficult to get a good shot of the geyser because you are so far
away, no matter where you are. I stayed until 1945 and saw no more
eruptions.

There was also a report that Azure Spring had a large eruption
sometime recently based on fresh wash. A good sized expedition of
geyser gazers are going out there tomorrow. Hopefully we see
something.

Other times from today:
Aurum 1201
Grotto 0540ie, and sometime between 1530 and 2030 it had an eruption
Oblong 0640ie, and an empty crater as viewed from bikepath @ 1312
Daisy 0703, 0944, 1148ie, 1352, 1551ie
Great Fountain 0641ie, 1810
Riverside 1053, 1653ie
Beehive 0308 (0251 Ind) and 1615 (1558 Ind)
Plume 0534, 0836ie, 1430, and 1532 were the only recorded times I have
Fountain 1250, 1806ie
Rift 1512
Lion 1734, 1915, 2041
Castle 1745 major
Depression 2053

Also a report from the Crosses from Shoshone that I am passing on, I
hope I got this correct, and I would think they'd send something as
well:

They saw Lion, Velvet, and Bead all active while they were there.
Apparently it seems that Velvet might have had a large eruption and
created a large runoff channel so it no longer flows into Lion. "Old
Lion" is dead.

That's all for today. As tomorrow is Saturday, it will be my Monday as
the work week starts, and I am working the late shift, so I will do my
best to get a report in about the River Group and anything else that
happened in the Basin.

Happy August,
-Ben Hoppe

-- 
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20