[Geysers] Geyser report 6/1

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS REPORT IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE READERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND IS NOT TO BE REPRODUCED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT.
 
It was a raw, windy day today with a few snow squalls.  The temperature dropped more than 20 degrees from yesterday's comparatively nice weather.
 
Once again I spent the day in the lower basin.  The farthest south I made it was to Till.  Stephen Eide had given me a drive-by ie time on Till this morning, but didn't stop to see whether it was a major or minor, so I drove on south, hoping to catch Jim S. morning report.  I timed a couple minors while waiting for his report.  Usually he and I can communicate from Flood and Till, but radio reception today was not good, so all I got was crackle, crackle, Grotto, crackle, crackle today.  I went back this afternoon, caught the major with less than 5 minutes wait.  The average for six intervals was 9h04m.
 
In the Pink Cone Group--Yesterday I caught some mid-cycle Pink Cone splashing.  It happened again today.  The splashing didn't get much above 3-6 feet, but it did leave puddles of water on the platform.  Someone driving by during the splashing might have thought it was an eruption, and someone driving by shortly after the splashing might have thought it had just erupted since the platform was wet even though we had had only brief snow showers.
 
I've caught Labial three times between 10 and 11 am this trip.  I thought it was going to happen again today.  Changes in the steam pattern indicated that Labial was having a significant push of water at 11:00.  Then Labial splashed up 2-3 feet briefly before the water levels dropped.  Labial finally erupted about 3 1/2 hours later.
 
Narcissus apparently decided to skip the short duration eruption today.  I left Pink Cone Group 5h30m after the only eruption of Narcissus I had seen.  That eruption had a duration exceeding 10 minutes.
 
One interval of Pink was 5h21m.  Both eruptioons had durations of 3m25s.
 
Pink Cone had finished its eruption and the road was almost dry when Stephen Eide first drove through Firehole Lake Drive this morning.  (I woke up about 3 am, thought to myself, I could go into the park now and see Pink Cone and Great Fountain, then thought, or, I could stay here in a nice warm bed and get another few hours of sleep.  Guess which won!  Infact, I slept later than usual.  I guess my body is trying to recoup from some of the 5 hour sleep nights the past two weeks.)
 
I caught Fountain's steam cloud this morning at 09:17ie, but didn't go over to get the end of Fountain.  (Steve confirmed the eruption based on observations of water levels, etc., about an hour later.)  This afternoon I saw a steam cloud try to rise (the stiff wind was keeping Clepsydra's steam cloud down and I missed the start of Fountain's steam cloud because the wind was knocking it down.)  This time I did "abandon" my post and drive over to walk up to watch the eruption, which ended at 17:28.
 
Yesterday evening's eruption of Great Fountain had weak second, third, and fourth bursts, so I estimated Great Fountain would erupt well before dawn.  (Maureen Edgerton confirmed Great Fountain didn't do anything after I left.)  This afternoon I arrived at 3 pm in case I had misread yesterday's eruption or it had another short duration eruption this morning.  Great Fountain erupted at 18:26, a double interval of 24h22m, with a pause of 6 minutes.  Overflow was 112 minutes, the longest overflow I've recorded this week, putting Great Fountain outside the prediction window I had given to Pat Snyder and Clark Murray.  I didn't stay to see whether it had a fifth burst, but the short duration of the third burst and long pause between the third and fourth indicated that it probably will erupt before dawn again tomorrow morning.  Great Fountain's average (mean) interval since the road opened is 13h12m.  If the first interval of 17h14m is excluded, the mean interval is 12h45m.  Closed intervals have varied from a minimum of 10h39m to a maximum of 17h14m, or 13h48m if the first interval after the road opened is excluded.
 
When I left Great Fountain this evening at about 19:20, the prediction board still said between 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm June 1, 2011.  
 
I  saw the OF Prius drive through Firehole Lake Drive about 9:15 this morning, and this afternoon I saw it at Great Fountain about 2 pm with two naturalists apparently downloading the monitor.  
 
Lynn
 
  		 	   		  
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