[Geysers] Is "Hot Dog" A Geyser?

David Schwarz david.schwarz at gmail.com
Wed Aug 25 20:10:13 PDT 2010


   Tough call whether that thing is a separate feature from Spasmodic and
Thumping Hole (the pentagonal hole on the far side of it from the
boardwalk).  It fills and splashes in pretty tight synchrony with Spasmodic.

   Incidentally, that hole wasn't always the gaping hole it is today.  When
I first looked at it in 1990, it was a shallow, oblong depression with
packed gravel on the left side where the throat.  It would fill with hot
water along with Spasmodic.  I think that was the state it was in the year
the "hot dog" comment was made.  A year or two later, the left vent was
cleaned out by a volunteer and it started behaving more or less like it does
now, and laying down deposits in the long-disused runoff channel it flows
into (which is probably also Penta's original, pre-Upper Basin trail
construction channel).  The right vent was cleared some time later--several
years I think--probably by the same volunteer.

   I'm curious when it got filled in originally--whether it was
pre-exploration, around the time of the trail construction, or some time
later.  It's probably not significant enough to have made it into any early
observations either way, but maybe?  The fact that the gravel was loose
enough to be cleaned out suggests that it hadn't been filled long enough to
cement the debris in place, in spite of the frequent rise-and-fall of water.

David Schwarz

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 8:03 PM, JEFFREY CROSS <jeff.cross at utah.edu> wrote:

> Is the small vent across the boardwalk from Penta a geyser?
>
> If so, should it be considered a geyser separately from Spasmodic?
>
> This summer, I found out that some people call this vent "Hot Dog."  It is
> right next to the boardwalk, on the same side as Spasmodic and opposite
> Penta.  It is shaped roughly like a bootprint.  It seems to be most active
> when Penta is about to start an eruption.
>
> The origin of the name is interesting: A careless visitor was illegally
> walking a dog on the boardwalk.  When the animal saw the bubbling vent, it
> jumped down to investigate and burnt its paw.  The animal's yelps attracted
> the comment from one gazer: "That's what I call a hot dog."
>
> Jeff Cross
> jeff.cross at utah.edu_______________________________________________
> Geysers mailing list
> Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> 
>
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