[Geysers] Long-term periodicities at Steamboat (& elsewhere)?

[Paul Strasser]

What's so interesting about the Steamboat temp log is that it is almost a
reverse hot period, a "cold period" if you will.

At Giant (at least when it was having hot periods!) temperatures would rise
in Mastiff and Giant in the minute(s) prior to the 'official' start of the
hot period, which was "Feather is on."  At Steamboat the periodicity is a
reduction in the temperature rather than an increase.  It's obviously not
diurnal so one would think it is a real phenomena.  

There is no data correlating majors with this periodicity.  One would think
that the chances of a major during the 'cold periods' was less than the rest
of the time.  Because the water where these temps are taken is derived
solely from minor activity in the South Vent that flows downhill from the
vent, and the probe is located a distance from the vent, one might surmise
that this may not be due to an actual temperature reduction within the
near-surface water in Steamboat's plumbing but simply to a reduction in the
vigor (and hence discharge) of the minor play.

But it is periodic.

I would be curious to see if there is a temp change at Emerald that
correlates to this periodicity.  In the 80s, notably 1984, Emerald and
Steamboat were both affected by small back-basin disturbances, so it might
be interesting to see if there is any discernable temp/discharge
correlation.

Paul Strasser

-----Original Message-----
From: geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu
[mailto:geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu] On Behalf Of Davis, Brian L.
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 5:38 PM
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Subject: [Geysers] Long-term periodicities at Steamboat (& elsewhere)?

Looking at the Steamboat temperature log here:

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/activity/monitoring/norris/steamboat.php

I noticed something I'd never known before (I know, there's a LOT I don't
know) - Steamboat seems to have a nicely periodic 4.5 day cycle (most easily
seen in the monthly graph). That surprised me, and got me thinking about
what could do that, as well as when in the cycle a major is most likely to
happen. Is there any information on this?

While on the subject of long-term cycles, what others are known? I realize
Giant hot periods might fit in this category, but I'm not sure what else
might? Annual cycles might be related to seasonality, but certainly this
doesn't explain things like a 4.5 day cycle.

-- 
Brian Davis
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