[Geysers] Norris Disturbance

[Bruce Jensen]

Thanks, Denise.  Rich Henderson and I observed Vixen Geyser for 5.5 hours on the 26th of August, and came away very impressed - many eruptions in that time frame, including one major of 24+ minutes.  Astounding!  Also Daughter of Green Dragon spraying/splashing to 20 feet, Pearl in constant play, and a substantial eruption of Gray Lakes. We hope to have a Sput article on Vixen coming up.

Bruce Jensen,

California, USA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"[Yellowstone] is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the one place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time." ~ Thomas Wolfe

--- On Thu, 9/2/10, Denise Herman <npstora at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Denise Herman <npstora at gmail.com>
Subject: [Geysers] Norris Disturbance
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Date: Thursday, September 2, 2010, 2:01 PM

The following is based mostly on observations by visitors and staff, with some correlations with downloaded information from loggers deployed in the basin.
 

Norris Geyser Basin Disturbance 2010
Since disturbance began, Pearl Geyser began erupting for the first time this season.  Veteran’s crater is dry.  Sagebrush springs, including Mini Pearl, are quite actively erupting.  Curiously, Porkchop’s temperature has dropped since the start of disturbance. Emerald and Cistern are at rolling boils. There is a strange spike on 8/25 on Echinus’ channel temperature logger, but no corresponding spike in discharge into Tantalus, so we’re not certain that we had an Echinus eruption.  The weir data shows a large spike in discharge in Tantalus occurring on 8/28, but we are not sure what has caused that.  The disturbance is affecting both Porcelain and Back Basin, with increased temperatures recorded on both sides.  Constant Geyser has really tapered off since disturbance, and temperature loggers on Steamboat seem to confirm that it has been “zapped” since the start of disturbance (one curious thing with Steamboat this season—it seems to
 have a cycle of 3 days of minor eruptions, then a lull for around 12 hours…hmm…).  Minor eruptions are less frequent and powerful than before.  The most exciting change has been with Vixen Geyser.  The first reported eruption of Vixen for the season was 6/30, and intervals were pretty long—around 1 hour or so between, and eruptions were minor.  Since the disturbance began, intervals have shortened to roughly 20-25 minutes, with some major eruptions.  We had our first report of disturbance events on 8/26, but downloads from the loggers indicate that the disturbance really began 8/24.

Disturbance seems to be going strong!
Denise Herman

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

_______________________________________________
Geysers mailing list
Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20100902/2959afee/attachment.html>