[Geysers] Fan & Mortar

[David and Ginger Starck]

I've always equated geyser watching to fishing. There is a distinct
anticipation that is very similar in the two events. You throw your lure,
bait or whatever into the water and the anticipation that a fish will bite
is what makes fishing fun. The same is true for geyser watching. Sitting
around waiting for a geyser to erupt is where the fun is. If you knew that a
certain geyser always erupted at 2:05PM, there would not be much fun in
seeing it hundreds of times.

 

So all this taking and recording of data is like reading the fishing reports
in the newspaper or talking to other fishermen about where the fishing has
been good recently. Fishing in a place where there are no fish is like
waiting for Excelsior to erupt. The data that we take helps others
(including the data taker) have a better idea of when the next eruption will
take place, so it is like knowing that people have caught fish in that area
before and you are more likely to catch more.

 

20 or 100 years from now it would be of great interest to a new Tara that
gets interested in what F&M was doing 20 or 100 years ago. I for one, thank
Tara and all the others who have shared their information with us! (Tara,
because of her note taking, led us to see our first eruption of Giant, which
is still one of my favorite memories from Yellowstone!)

 

Dave Starck

davidjohl at aol.com

 

From: geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu
[mailto:geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu] On Behalf Of Tara Cross
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2011 12:56 AM
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Subject: [Geysers] Fan & Mortar

 

Fan & Mortar give me great joy.  I would like others to experience that,
too.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com

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