[Geysers] Victory Geyser 9/21 and 9/22

[Lynn Stephens]

Lotus Baker (with help by Keith Baker) provided these observations about Victory Geyser on 9/21/2009:

 

07:20 ie, off 07:45

called 10:24, off 11:00 (?)

 

Watched from 12:12:

    Square Spring up about 3 minutes, down about 3 mintues, erupting boil on up

    Pool [Victory] slowly fills to overflow channel.  Once full, look for small bubbles that beg bigger; surges happen about 1-2 minutes after bubbles.

    Called eruption on bursts to 6" 12:53; burst to one foot at 12:55.

    Bursts 2 to 3 feet high rising to 4' to 6' toward end; eruption stopped 13:20.

    Square Spring to low, Culvert below ledge; Persistent drained.

 

    Restart fill at 13:28 again about 3 min up and down, down getting less as pool fills to overflow; bubbles again at 15:09; 6" burst at 15:20, end at 15:54.

 

     Third time drained to empty--bursts to 6" at 18:34, end at 19:10.

 

I observed Victory Geyser on 9/22/2009 from 15:20 until the end of an eruption.

 

     When I arrived at 15:20, Victory and Persistent were both empty, Square Spring was below overflow and Culvert was down about 6" below overflow.  Square Spring and Culvert showed a 6-minute cycle such as Keith and Lotus observed on 9/21/09.  I picked a rock in Square Spring to monitor the increase/decrease in the pool level.  Using my reference point, the rise began about a minute before the bursting started.  Bursting lasted about a minute, then Square Spring's pool dropped.  After a minute or so at the drop level, Square Spring started bubbling, but stayed at a "drop" level for about three-four minutes before it rose again.  Interestingly, most of the bubbling occurred near the center of the pool, although sometimes there would be three or four different places from which bubbling took place.  However, the bursting came from the southeast edge of the pool.

      Culvert's water level, and the water level in Victory fluctuated in concert with Square Spring's fluctuations.  Water levels in all three were up at the same time and down at the same time.  

      At 1654 Victory's "up" water level reached the point where it crept outside the crater.  At this point water was also visible in Persistent on the "up" portion of the cycles.

     At 1742 Victory's "up" water level started sending runoff down the runoff channel to the north.

     At 1830 I noted that Square Spring and Culvert were both almost full on the "up" portion of the cycle.  Victory started bubbling at 1833, then started erupting at 1837.

     Victory is still throwing rocks during the eruption but most of the rocks fall back into the crater or are washed back during the eruption.  The eruption consisted of a churning, boiling type of eruptive activity with bursts reaching 3-5 feet.  After a few minutes it appeared that the eruption was coming from a water level below the rim of the crater, because water appeared to be washing back into the crater.  Periodically the strength of the eruption would seem to wane, then the bursts would return to the 3-5 feet level.  Duration of the eruption I watched was 40 minutes.  In the final seconds the eruption was clearly coming from a water level below that of the crater rim, much like Artemisia continues to boil after you can see that the water level has dropped below the crater's rim.  Victory's eruption ends more suddenly than does Artemisia's eruption however so I called the end of the eruption at the time of the end of the bursting activity.

     Copious amounts of hot water going out the crater rim are killing the grass around the crater.  The water going down the runoff channel to the north enters an area where the trees are already dead, but if the activity continues the hot water may impact some of the other trees farther away from the runoff area.

     I did not monitor water levels in Square Spring, Persistent, and Culvert during Victory's eruption.  As Lotus and Keith reported, at the end of Victory's eruption, Square Spring was down at the lowest point I had seen it during the observation period--about 2 feet or so below full, Culvert's water level had dropped below the ledge and Persistent was drained.

 

Lynn Stephens

 

 
 		 	   		  
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