[Geysers] Geyser Report September 14

[Lynn Stephens]

Items from the OFVC logbook:

 

Eight Old Faithful intervals varying from a short of 61 minutes (the only short) to a long of 112 minutes.  (I haven't entered them into the electronic version to check the math yet.)

 

Castle 1:04E major; 1552, major

Daisy 0618ie, 0855, 1110vr, 1315vr, 1504

Fountain 1300ns

Grand 0655 (D0 per Jim on a 28-minute Turban interval), 1422

Great Fountain 1300 of=79, p=7

Riverside 0931E, 1512

Beehive 1524 (Indicator = 1508)

Lone Star 1045vr

Plume 0639, 0729, 0824, 0917, 1010, 1111, 1212, 1311, x, 1502

 

Artemisia 1047

Aurum 1540

Grotto 1427

Grotto Fountain 1426ie

Lion 1130, 1249

Little Cub 1441ie, 1517ie

West Triplet 1439

Oblong 0623ns, 1151ie, 1454ns

Depression 0835

Plate 1238ie

Dome still active 1530ie, also 1411ie, 1447

Narcissus 1520ns

White Dome 0906, 0953, 1050, 1112, 1135, 1218

Bead 1327

Labial 1334 (one of the most powerful eruptions of Labial I've seen this year)

Box Spring 1345

Till minor 1404

Pink Cone 1340 (I=22h13m)

 

When Norman K. came through Great Fountain this morning, I told him it looked like it was going to be awhile before it erupted and said I would give a call with the updated prediction on the FRS radio if he wanted to go wait at Fountain.  Unfortunately, Fountain and Great Fountain started their eruptions at almost the same time this afternoon.  Lacking a time for this morning's eruption of Fountain, Norman decided to come over to Great Fountain for a sure thing.  Steve Bezore and his friend Al had gotten Artemisia this morning and decided to come down to Great Fountain also once they heard the call from the Visitor Center on the FRS radio announcing my prediction of 1300 plus/minus 15 minutes.  (Steve and Al got Lone Pine on September 13 at 10:04.)  Carl Stevens, from Utah, is in for a 10-day stay and also showed up at Great Fountain.

 

Great Fountain's first burst had some blue at the base more than once, with a few jets in the 120 foot range that drew applause from the oriental woman who had been asking me plenty of questions before the eruption started and during the pause.

 

Maureen Edgerton (please accept my apology for leaving your name off the list of gazers who are still here) had told me that Sunday's 10:14 eruption had been a long, strong one so I figured Great Fountain would go out beyond the 10:15 am prediction based on rolling it forward 24 hours for a double interval.

 

When I had arrived at Great Fountain about 9:15 am, I looked at the pool and knew it was going to be awhile.  So I posted a prediction of between 10:15 am and 2:15 pm, then told the people who had already started gathering that it was going to be awhile and that, although Great Fountain is a pleasant place to sit, they might want to go do something else and come back later.  Some of them accepted the advice, some did not.

 

As the morning progressed, more and more people became aware of the fact that I was a gazer and supposedly knew something about Great Fountain as I kept rolling the board forward.  Finally, Great Fountain went into overflow and I posted the half hour prediction.  Several people gathered around me as I called the prediction on the radios, asking how I knew it would erupt in that half hour.  I explained about overflow and the 1-meter boil that was the technical start of the eruption.   and commented that so far this summer I haven't missed a half hour prediction yet, although there could always be a first time.  Someone asked if anyone was tracking my accuracy, and I replied, "Yes, but he's gone now, he was tracking a plus/minus 1-minute window, but I don't think he kept any actual records anyway."  Then I added that so far this summer when I had seen the start of overflow I had not yet missed with the 30 minute window although there was one time when it erupted on the first minute and one time when it erupted on the last minute.

 

As the window opened, I moved out to the end of the boardwalk.  I could hear a girl about 11 or 12 years old complaining to her grandmother that she was tired of waiting and she didn't think the geyser would ever erupt.  The grandmother reassured her that the "geyser lady" had never missed with her half hour prediction yet, so Great Fountain was bound to erupt soon.  This conversation was repeated several times during the next 15 minutes.

 

At exactly 1300 Great Fountain had not just a 1-meter boil, but immediately shot up to 2 or 3 meters, so there was no question about whether it had hit 1-meter.  People around me cheered and the grandmother turned to me and congratulated me my accuracy in hitting the midpoint exactly.  Unfortunately the chronicler of how close I come to the +/- 1-minute window has left for the season and wasn't there to document the phenomenon.

 

When I came back to the Upper Basin, I stayed out to watch Beehive, then came to the office to work on the "Activity of Selected Geysers" article for the October Sput.

 

Tom and Genean:  I'm going to miss the September 15 deadline for the October Sput, but should have the article to you sometime Friday.

 

While I was still at the office a rainstorm moved in.  This morning when I woke at 2:30, the sky was clear but by the time I left for the Visitor Center to delog and copy the pages for September 14, basin fog was starting to block the stars.  At least I hope it was basin fog instead of clouds, although rain would make it much easier to stay inside today to work on that Sput article.

 

Lynn Stephens

 

 

 

 

 

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