[Geysers] And help with Kaleidoscope?

[caros at xmission.com]

Need some help determining what feature or features we saw while  
hanging out waiting for Fountain last week (did get a stunningly  
beautiful Honeycomb whilst waiting also...)

OK, here's the set-up. Please understand I had binoculars with me and  
have never had mega-eyeballs before when viewing this area. From right  
to left, Deep Blue, the thing I'm not sure of that was BIG (larger  
than Deep Blue all the time I watched it) but was in the basic  
Kaleidoscope/Drain area), a small (guessing a meter across) pool, and  
a last pool I'm fairly sure was Three Vent. All lined up in a row; the  
thing I think was 3-Vent was well to the right of Blow-out and where  
NTFL erupted from.

With the binoculars, the feature in question clearly had suspended  
particles in it (think the milky blue of Porcelain Basin, not the  
clear intense blue of Gentian or Deep Blue). The edge on this pool's  
right had the gentle slope you expect with active geysers; however,  
the rear edge and left side of the pool formed abrupt right angles  
with the landscape around them. The feature sat perhaps 6" below the  
pool's rim, although it did appear to flow over the lip toward Deep  
Blue from time to time. Not sure how important this is, but what was  
visible of the crater at the back and back left seemed a goldy-orange  
and irregular (like no build-up of sinter in pretty patterns.

The 4 eruptions we saw were enormous, but they were literally "blink"  
geysers whose eruptions were restricted to a single burst with a  
second or so prodromal play before the big water came bursting  
through. Guess on the height of the first 3 is 80 feet; the 4th was  
smaller (looked a little like Drain toward the end of a series).  
Bursts were 6-10 minutes apart. First burst was fan-shaped, wide the  
way Drain is wide. Second was a tall, narrow spindle and very  
Kaleidoscope-shaped but came and went much faster than one expects  
Kaleidoscope to (likewise with the first one); third was kind of a  
spherical burst with a "spindle" coming up through it; the fourth was  
as described above. The pool did not drain, but we saw no further  
activity though we waited through most of Honeycomb and all of  
Fountain/Morning's Thief.

Wondering if the milky pool and the angular edge suggest a blowout of  
some sort and if maybe Drain's and Kaeidoscope's pool now function as  
one pool? Several days later on a Fountain sit, noticed that the pool  
was truly full, but we witnessed no further eruptions.

Any takers on this one? Deep Blue had several smallish vents playing  
including the geyser previously known as the Firehose; nothing except  
intermittent steam out of the two pools to the left of this montage.

One more question re Sprinkler group: currently, there are two geysers  
in what I think are the Vertical/Angle area that are playing in  
concert fairly consistently and do look to be coming out of the same  
shallow crater. They are the only two I've noticed that exhibit this  
twinned behavior. Any takers on that one as well?

Thanks for any help. This one has me stumped.
Karen Webb




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