[Geysers] Geyser Report 5/28

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS POST IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE READERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND IS NOT TO BE REPRODUCED FOR ANY OTHER REASON, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT.
 
In contrast to yesterday morning's drive when the road from West to Madison was covered with frozen gunk and the road from Madison to Old Faithful was clear, this morning the road from West to Madison was clear, but the road from Madison to the steel bridge was slushy and snowy.  (Tara and Dave came in about two hours after I did.  By then the road was pretty much clear from Madison to Biscuit, but then two-three inches of snow on the road the rest of the way.)
 
I stopped at Fountain on the way in.  Timed a few Jet eruptions and a Spasm eruption, noted Morning's water was really low, so figured it had done two eruptions overnight.  Fountain has settled down to shorter, more regular intervals.  From the 1228 eruption on 5/26 (the first with a 30-31 minute duration) to the 1028 eruption on 5/27, the average was 7h20m.  This triple interval was followed by a closed interval of 7h24m.  Fountain erupted at 0835ns duration approximately 31 minutes (I saw the steam cloud rise from Pink Cone), for a 7h21m average on the double interval.  This afternoon I went up to Fountain at about the 5 hour mark, saw a Spasm, saw the first bubbling from Morning's Thief at 1524, then Fountain erupted at 15:29, an interval of 6h54m, duration 34 minutes.  
 
Whereas Fountain has shortened up, Great Fountain had a long interval today.  How long you ask.  I don't know but may know tomorrow.  I saw the steam cloud from Great Fountain's first burst go up from the Fountain Overlook at 0626.  I was looking toward the parking lot, so know this was the start of the first burst.  I don't know how long the eruption lasted because Firehole Lake Drive didn't open until 7:32.  Several gazers who came through about 8:15 and subsequently can confirm Great Fountain was post eruptive when they came through.  (Somebody had seen the post-eruptive boiling and gathered a few cars, telling people it was in overflow, and they should wait.  Maureen tried to clue them in that it was post-eruptive, not preeruptive.)  As of 2100 this evening, Great Fountain had not yet gone into overflow.  Although there was a pretty sunset reflecting pink on the plaform, I abandoned Great Fountain since it didn't look close to overflow yet.  Dave and Tara may swing through there tonight on their way back to West to see whether it's gone into overflow and/or erupted yet.  At the rate it was looking, I think Fountain is going to erupt again before Great Fountain does tonight.
 
Non geyser--Firehole Lake Drive--there are little no bus and no RV pictures on the Firehole Lake Drive sign between Whiskey Flats and the entrance to Firehole Lake Drive.  The brown sign covering up the entire sign board had covered up the little pictures.  My apologies to the Park Service for commenting that there were no warnings for northbound traffic.  On the other hand, several gazers commented that the little pictures on all three places where the restrictions are posted are so small that they almost missed them, even though they knew they should be looking for them.  I didn't see any buses on Firehole Lake Drive today, but did see two good-size RV's this morning.  (I know one was 29 feet because it could have been the twin of my son's RV that I lived in for three months last fall when I was a campground host at Cape Disappointment state Park.)  
 
I didn't see a wrong way driver until 2012 this evening.  (I was at Pink Cone from 0733 until 1230 and at Great Fountain from about 1630 until 2100.)  When I stopped the person to politely say that they missed the sign, so possibly they didn't know they were going the wrong way on a one-way road, the driver replied, "Yes, I know, but I want a picture of Great Fountain."  The vehicle was obviously not a rental and the occupants were locals of Gallatin County.  They hung around Great Fountain for 15-20 minutes and I could hear them joking about my brief speech about safety concerns of driving the wrong way on a one-way road.  Oh well.
 
Till--closed interval today of 8h58m.
 
Pink Cone Group--I saw everything except Labial's Satellite Vents, but didn't get closed intervals on anything except a bunch of Box Spring and Bead eruptions.
 
Pink Cone was ie at 0733, end 0835.  The triangular shaped road bubbler has been completely covered up by buildup from Shelf Spring's runoff.  The "frying pan" road bubbler (in the cut made in the mid-1990's) started about 10 minutes before Pink Cone ended and continued for about half an hour after Pink Cone ended.  Also, Pink Cone is still sending up occasionall strong, sustaiined steam puffs, and making rumbling sounds at least 3 1/2 hours after the end of the eruption.  Some of 3-4 minute sustaiined steam puffs with accompaning rumbling are strong enough to seem like the end of an eruption, so please be careful about assuming that strong steam puffs and noise can be interpreted as "near end" of a Pink Cone eruption.
 
For what it's worth, Pink's duration was about 8 1/2 minutes.
 
The Narcissus eruption I saw was a short duration eruption, so I was expecting a "long" interval.  It still hadn't erupted after 4 1/2 hours when I finally abandoned Pink Cone Group.
 
Bead and Box Spring were "normal" or acting as usual, I guess, or at least what was usual when I was here last Memoriald Day. (Don't you hate it when someone says that, because what was "normal" or "no change"?)  Without crunching numbers, Bead intervals varied from a minimum of ABOUT 28 mintues to a maximum of ABOUT 36 minutes.  Box Spring intervals were almost, if not all, under 30 minutes.
 
White Dome intervals varied from a minimum of 13 minutes to a maximum of >1h13m.
 
Tara and Dave reported Logbridge is active.  Someone also told me A-0 is active.  I saw steam clouds from Botryoidal, but didn't go collect any intervals.  (Pat and Tara did and will probably report later.)
 
Tara gave me the Grand time of 1453 (a 1-burst eruption) and the Beehive time 1417.  Sitting at Pink Cone, I had heard one radio call giving a bunch of times from late last night, including the Beehive indicator 2343 and Beehive 2357.
 
I did drive up to the Upper Basin for one Atomizer minor, but sacrificed the major thinking I would see Great Fountain's overflow and eruption.  This is time in many years that I won't see the first Great Fountain eruption after the road opened.
 
Lynn 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20110528/fa83a6ae/attachment.html>