[Geysers] Trip report, Norris

[Stephen Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

A short note on parts of Norris on 4-19-11.  I spent the day in the library
at Gardner and stopped in Norris on the way back. Much of what I saw is just
a conformation of the info Gordon Bower already posted.  I watched the
Porceline terrace from the overlook for about ten minutes and saw no
activity.  The snow was warm and rotten so I did not try to go down the
hill.  The new feature below Rediscovered Geyser discribed by Mike Keller
last fall appears to be quiet now.  Minute Geyser appeared somewhat more
powerful with some bursts to six feet tall.  As Gordon said there are two
perpetual spouters in the flat between Minute and Monarch, one about a foot
high and the other maybe six inches high.  Monarch looked unchanged from how
it looked in the fall.  Fearless geyser was bubbling weakly.  Palpitator
Spring was dry, no water at all.  I forgot to look at Rubble Geyser.  I
caught three eruptions of Vixen at 1752, 1803, and 1815 ie, all in the 10-15
foot range for height and with only minor runoff.  As Gordon said, much of
the runoff is going West-Southwest under the boardwalk instead of going
Northwest to the dirt foot path as it did last year.  I am unsure if the
wind had anything to do with this.  Pearl did not erupt for me, it had
overflow and was thumping regularly but did not manage to get water into the
air.  The springs across from Pearl (I lke to call them Creamsicle Springs
due to there tan-orange color) were nearly quiet for the first time I have
seen them since they were formed.  Only one vent was active and it only
bubble lightly, no splashing.   Son of Green Dragon continues to be a tall
perpetual spouter in the 10-15 foot range, erupting at an angle towards the
corner of the nearby boardwalk.  I did not see Orby in the short time I was
there but a couple of the other geysers in that flat area did erupt.
Corporal Geyser was acting as an intermittant spring.  Dog Leg was active,
the two major vents were bubbling intermittantly and a vent between them
with gravel in it would erupt to about one inch every 20-25 seconds. Veteran
was a weak spouter to a few feet high.  Echinis was not active.  There are
two vents in Echinis,  In the past when it did erupt I noticed the vent
farthest from the runoff channel (closest to the upper deck) was the vent
doing the most boiling.   When the vent closest to the runoff channel was
the most active, Echinis did not erupt.  Well, the vent closest to the
runoff channel was the most active.  Steamboat had only weak surging and
mostly north function.  The hight was hard to judge as I was standing on 5
feet of snow on the lower platform.

Also, I lost a Yak-trak in the Norris basin somewhere.  I postholed several
times and I thnk on one of them the Yak-trak was pulled off.

Stephen Eide
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20110428/3eeb5b2e/attachment.html>