[Geysers] Yellowstone Report 6/16 and 6/17 (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

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Yesterday evening (6/16) I went out to Atomizer hoping it would have a short major-to-major intervals, and got reasonable lucky.  Within about 10 minutes of my arrival, Artemisia erupted (interval unknown).  During Artemisia's eruption, Atomizer also erupted and because of the way the steam was blowing from Artemisia, I did not get the duration, but it didn't seem like it lasted close to a minute.  So, I stayed at Artemisia/Atomizer after Artemisia finished even though the huge, voracious mosquitoes were trying to draw blood through two layers of clothing.  I had to keep my hands stuffed inside the sleeves of my jacket, a scarf pulled down over my forehead to the top of my eyeglasses, another scarf around my neck crammed into my jacket collar and a third scarf pulled up over my cheeks and nose.  Even though I thought I had every possible inch of skin covered, I still had some itchy bumps this morning.  Atomizer had a 55 second minor at 1918 and a quick comeback major at 1930 (interval about 14 hours).

 

Carl, the potter, had walked past after the end of Artemisia.  He decided not to wait for the next Atomizer event, and said he could hear the steam phase from the major eruption at Biscuit Basin.

 

Thankfully the bison herd stayed away from the trail, and caused only a slight traffic delay when I was trying to get back from Biscuit Basin to Old Faithful.

 

This morning after delogging and cooking breakfast at DNBSPL, I decided to get a closed interval on Atomizer.  Because the sky was gray, I watched from the pickup to get a minor at 0722 (6/17) with a duration of about 45 seconds.  The sky seemed to be getting darker and darker, so I grabbed my poncho, but not my chair to go up for the next Atomizer event.  Atomizer had a 60 second minor at 08:38 and then took 12 minutes to build to the major at 08:50 (another quick comeback major, and an interval of 13h32m).  

 

A note about Atomizer major--The 9 to 11 minute water phase does not have continuous water.  Sometimes at the three, four, five, six, seven--sometimes more than one of these--the water ceases briefly, fooling the observer into thinking the eruption might be finished.  But the water column returns, frequently reaching a height comparable to the initial height. 

 

As I suspected, yesterday afternoon's eruption of Great Fountain was weak.  For this (6/17) afternoon's prediction, I asked that instead of using 24 hours for a double prediction, we move it back to 23 hours.  Turns out I should have moved it back to 22 since Great Fountain erupted at 1307 (double I = 22h19m, of=79m, p=8).  Great Fountain was really pretty today with the sun on it for a change.  There was a really nice shot during the first burst--not a super burst and unfortunately it didn't get the tripods I was suggesting it soak, but a really great superb burst.

 

Beehive (1352) erupted during the pause between Great Fountain's third and fourth bursts, so I missed Beehive today.

 

I have no notes about wildlife (all I saw were a few scattered bison), no visitor comments, nothing on the reverse sides of the pages of my notebook.  Rather than crunch some geyser data to include, I'm going to call it quits for today, and go take care of housekeeping chores such as laundry, etc.

 

Lynn Stephens

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