[Geysers] Geyser Report September 17

[Lynn Stephens]

Items from the OFVC logbook

 

Someone pointed out to me that not everyone is familiar with one of the abbreviations used in the OFVC logbook.  "E" means the time came from a monitoring device

 

Castle 0524E minor, 1216 major

Daisy 0857, 0635ie, 1112, 1401, 1625vr, 1859

Fountain 1135 (d=31min) (Thank you Maureen)

Grand 0545E, 1502 (T1Q) d =12m18s

Great Fountain 0230E, 1355E, 1349 p = 0 oflw = 78 (I was 4 minutes off on the midpoint of the prediction window.)

 

Riverside 0844, 1438ie

Beehive 0308ns (Thank you Hatfields) 1607 (Indicator = 1555)

Fan & Mortar 0736 d = 35 min

Lone Star 0925 major

Plume 0902, 1001, 1059, 1154, 1252, 1346, 1435, 1532, 1627, 1722

 

Little Brother active 1816

UNNG in Tangled Creek 1424

Pink 1149ie

White Dome 1146, 1212, 1418 (I=2h06m)

Turban 1421

Rift 1256 (end 1437)

Sputnik 1224, 1237, 1244, 1253

Rocket 1150ie

Oblong 0933ie, 1505ns

Depression 0628ie

West Triplet 1223 d ~ 53 min

Sawmill 0609 (end 0610) 1220ie 1413 still it

Little Cub 0938ie, 1014, 1052, 1129ie, 1445ie, 1522ie, 1559ie, 1719ie

LIon 1344ie, 1513 d = 4, 1703ie

Grotto 0500ie, 1340ie

Artemisia 1132ie

 

THE FOLLOWING IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT

 

Fan & Mortar:  When I arrived at F&M at 0500, all the vents were off, including Angle.  River Vent turned on at 0508 with Gold, and Angle coming on during the cycle (start times not noted), then all of them went off at 0529, including Angle.

 

River Vent stayed off only briefly, turning back on at 0534 with Gold, and Angle coming on during the cycle.  Angle turned off again with the River Vent turn off at 0556.

 

River Vent came on again at 0625, with Gold once again coming on immediately.  At 0627 Main Vent started huffing and roaring, turning Gold off at 0628.  Main Vent gave a mighty huff that might have had some water mixed in with the steam at 0630, and River Vent shut off, for a Gold pause.

 

Not once this morning was I annoyed by the sound of Angle going phsfssst, phsfsst, psfssst while River Vent was off.

 

The first water I saw through Main Vent's steam was at 0631.  Main Vent had infrequent splashes until 0635 when the splashes started coming periodically.  By 0638 the splashes were almost continuous.  At 0642 Lower Mortar was having frequent fuzzballs.  Main Vent continued frequent splashing until 0645.

 

Jim S. was at Daisy relaying my radio calls, and was the first to arrive at F&M.  Steve Bezore and his friend Al came riding down a few minutes later.  One of them had a bike that makes just about as much squealing as my bike of many colors.  Then Barbara L arrived on foot with Dan Hatfield about 200 yards behind her.  (Stephanie Hatfield arrived a short while into the eruption and two young female visitors came running over, all excited about the eruption about 10 mintues into the eruption.  One male visitor took a couple looks at the eruption, then just walked away.)

 

Bottom Vent started erupting at 0646 and Main Vent was reduced to steam huffs and puffs.  Bottom Vent had occasional brief pauses at 0659, 0710, and 0715, but not enough to ever say that Bottom Vent had stopped.

 

River Vent came on at 0715, followed by Gold at 0718 and Angle burbled on at 0722.  At 0724 I noted the lucky osprey flying through the steam in the Chain Lakes Group.

 

The water levels held through the 10 minute mark and just kept getting better.  Frying Pan started putting out water at 0731.  At 0734 I called a lock just as Upper Mortar had a vent filling push of water.  At 0736 High was going 15+ feet and Bottom Vent had started erupting to two feet; Main Vent had a vent filling surge that looked like it could have produced a blue bubble because the water filled the vent with blue, but East Vent took off instead at 0736.  

 

The tiny breeze we had pushed the steam and water slightly toward the river so we had excellent viewing conditions.  Both Fan and Mortar had strong eruptions.  Fan easily cleared the boardwalk by 15 feet, without any aid from the wind.  I didn't note the time, but several minutes into the eruption Lower Mortar was still sending water 20 feet into the air.  The sun had not yet topped the horizon, so we didn't have sun on the water, but as the eruption progressed sunlight was able to tinge the top of the steam column golden.

 

About 6 minutes into the eruption the wind shifted just slightly so we were first getting misted, then rained on by the steam column.  Being somewhat sleep deprived and giddy from getting to see the eruption and the events leading up to the eruption, I was dancing down the boardwalk singing

 

It's raining, it's pouring,

And Mortar is roaring,

Went to bed, got up instead,

Saw F&M in the morning.

 

Later, while I was waiting for Great Fountain to go into overflow, I reworked the doggerel, adding a couple verses:

 

Elk bugling, stars shooting

Also hear owl hooting

Stars still out, no one's about

It's too early in the morning.

 

Think again, Lynn's beaming

The rock pile's still steaming

Clear you head, no need for dread

You may get lucky come morning.

 

It's time now, come dashing,

Good Main Vent is splashing

Angle's dead, Gold Pause she said

Please let's have a lock this morning.

 

It's raining, it's pouring

It's Mortar that's roaring

East Vent lead, you sleepyhead

See golden steam early morning

 

Sun's shining, steam's soaring

Mow Main Vent is roaring

Not in bed, got up instead

Saw F&M in the morning.

 

After Fan & Mortar ended, we agreed to meet for cheesecake, provided by Barbara L., in the DNBS parking lot (Lower Ham's to most of us) for a post-F&M celebration.  Barbara and MaryBeth decided to turn it into a pre-birthday celebration for Lynn as well as a post F&M celebration.  (Thank you very, very much, it was very thoughtful of them and everyone who attended.  Although I think it was really Barb's cheesecake that brought the gazers together.)

 

Overheard out at Great Fountain:  They have real live wild bison here, not tame bison.  Hmm, I wonder if tame bison aren't live.

 

I was going to finish my gazing day with a rainbow in this afternoon's eruption of Beehive.  But after I went in to the trailer to take a nap and have dinner, I had a little time on my hands before going to a presentation on "How Geysers Work" with subtopics of geophysical methods applied to measure steam bubbles rising and collapsing underground, sea level deformation by underwater hydrothermal systems, and measurement of ground deformation caused by pressure building in hydrothermal systems, i.e. geysers, leading up to an eruption.  So I used the time to watch an early evening eruption of Old Faithful.  I didn't find a rainbow, but wished I had grabbed the camera to get a picture fo the eruption in the low angle, golden light from the sun.

 

The weather was really warm today and at 7 pm this evening I was still in a short sleeve shirt and wished I hadn't put on long pants and shoes and socks. 

 

A non-geyser note:  The crosswalks between the DNBS parking lot and the paths leading to the asphalt trail were repainted today.

 

Lynn Stephens

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