[Geysers] Geyser Report 1/15-22 2011

[Graham Meech]

This is a bit delayed but it doesn't sound like many people have been
visiting the park this winter to take advantage of information anyway.  I
had my 5th annual winter trip this year over the MLK Day holiday week.

 

F&M had erupted overnight 1/14-15 per Carolyn Loren so the first few days I
roamed the basin.  Since F&M had several ~3 day intervals  I spent a lot of
time down-basin the rest of the trip.  Here's what I saw.

 

Plume:  I watched 4 eruptions close up and for the first one there was water
pooled in the vents closest to the Plume sign.   I still heard the water
gurgling up in the back (Easternmost) vent prior to the eruption.  On all
the other eruptions it was "normal", erupting when no water was visible in
the vents.  All eruptions had 5 burst when I counted them.

 

Beehive erupted in daylight every day but I only saw 3 of them, and only one
close-up.  Intervals seemed to be mainly 12-14 hours apart with a likely
range of 10-16 but I am not really sure.

 

Depression - based on actual eruptions and empty craters it seemed to match
the recent webcam observations of ~3 hour intervals.  It's still having some
strong and some weak eruptions.

 

"Mouth" was active and may be enlarging its opening with a "cut lip".

 

Arrowhead Spring was empty - at least I couldn't see any water in it while
standing on the 1' of snow/ice on the boardwalk.

 

Lion had a couple of series in daylight that I saw but hard to keep track of
the series.  Based on recent webcam times (or lack thereof) its probably
having 1 series a day most of the time?

 

Nothing exciting out of the Goggles - so that has broken my run of trips
with N Goggles eruptions, I guess that run only worked in 2010!

 

Exclamation Point was dry each time I walked by so it had changed since
September.

 

Aurum - no closed intervals but it was clearly in winter mode, building up
steadily till it erupted.  I believe its intervals are around 4 hours based
on a few eruptions and empty hole sightings.

 

Sponge - no 2' eruptions for me, just the regular 2" type.

 

Vault and Infant had a lot of water but were a couple of inches below
overflow.

 

Giantess erupted about 2 weeks before I arrived and failed to have a really
short interval while I was there.

 

Dome - I think it was active on 1/21 based on heavy steam that morning seen
from the Old Faithful side of the river but since I took the all-day Canyon
snowcoach tour I was not able to confirm this.

 

Penta had eruptions 3 days in a row based on sightings or washed snow and
then took a few days off.

 

Bulger - I saw 3 majors on separate days with durations 6-10 minutes.

 

Grand - ranged from 1-3 bursts with durations all over the place - a 13min
single burst and a 9 1/2min three burst (you know I was rooting for a
fourth)!

 

Chromatic was in overflow.

 

Oblong - Closed intervals ranged from 3h20m to 4h10m and all the  other
empty hole sightings matched this.  Rather nice and one of the eruptions was
very thumpy!

 

Giant - I didn't spend much time there, quite a lot of snow all over the
satellite vent and Mastiff runoff channels.  

 

Grotto and friends - I saw two Grotto Fountain eruptions which were
accompanied by Grotto and S Grotto Fountain.  I also barely saw a Rocket
Major through the snow.

 

Spa - never saw an eruption but it was having overflow at least.

 

Riverside - usually doing a series of short intervals or a series of long
intervals I think.  Makes it hard to predict when it switches between long
and short!

 

F&M - grr, enough said.  

 

Well ok, there was a little to report.... 

1/18 Tuesday morning (3-4 day point in the interval) there were 2 weak event
cycles:

0728 River Gold Angle all ie,

0733 all off,

0737  Main Vent splash but not much splashing after that,

0751 River on

0756 Gold on then Angle turned on later but I didnt catch the start time,

0821 River off - no good water levels at all.

 

0945 River off, Angle on

0954 River on (angle off for a while before this)

0955 Gold on

0957 River off - Gold Pause

1008 Main Vent splash (weak splashing continued but not very strong)

1022 River on

1027 River off - River Pause

1038 Bottom Vent d~3m

1043 River on

1045 Gold on and again Angle turned on but I didnt catch the start time

1119 River off - again not very good water at any time

 

1/19 Wednesday at the 4-5 day interval they should have erupted:

1016 River on

1017 Gold on

1020 Angle on

Break in observations

1101 Main Vent splashing in progress, lots of white stuff, frequent large
noisy splashes

1114 Bottom Vent d=8 and Main Vent splashing continued

1127 Bottom Vent #2 d=7

1129 Main Vent splash into East Vent

1141 Bottom Vent #3 d=9 Main vent splashing died down at this point (after
40 minutes of strong splashing) but it was still steaming a lot

1150 River on

1155 Gold on

1157 Angle ie

Good water

Great water

High to 4' .....

1214 still great water 24 min after River started, 19min after Gold
started......

1215 water levels drop

 

There could have been a pause in the gap in observations but I am not sure.
40min of great Main Vent splashing and 24 min of great water levels just
were not enough......  My consolation after this on Wednesday was a 2 burst
Grand, Aurum, and then Beehive before dark, so not such a bad day after all!

 

Thursday 1/20 at the 5-6 day interval  - I was surprised that F&M had not
erupt overnight so I watched them closely all day.

1502 Main Vent splash but never very good splashing during this event

1511 River on

1515 River off - River Pause 

1520 River on

1527 River off - River Pause #2

1532 River on

1533 Gold on and Angle started later

No good water.

 

Friday 1/21 at the 6-7 day interval - Still no eruption and no events seen
all day long.  Depression did erupt for me as I walked over Geyser Hill on
my way in that evening, how appropriate!

 

Saturday 1/22 - I decided to give up on F&M and visit Canyon on the
snowcoach.  Carolyn Loren checked in the morning and determined that F&M had
erupted overnight for an interval of about 7 days so going on the snowcoach
saved me that walk down to F&M to find I missed them overnight.  Now F&M
have erupted 7 times at night in my 3 last trips and 0 times in daylight!
You might want to plan on visiting the park when I am not there if you want
to catch a daylight F&M.

 

Daisy - most eruptions in the 2h45-3h10m range.

 

At Midway, Opal Pool and Turquoise Pool were both full and overflowing.
Excelsior did not erupt.

 

It was a great trip again but a lot more cloud cover this time, so not as
many photo-ops for me.  I put some photos on FaceBook if you want to see
them.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069775
<http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069775&id=1470722670&l=26249b2bfb>
&id=1470722670&l=26249b2bfb

 

Graham Meech

 

 

 

 

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