[Geysers] Geyser report 5/29/11

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE READERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND IS NOT TO REPRODUCED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT.
 
Yesterday at Great Fountain, I think, someone said the rivers weren't nearly as high as they had been led to expect from my posts.  He suggested possibly the colder weather had contributed to lower river levels.  I hadn't noticed because I've gone in before dawn the past couple days and came out after dark last night.  This morning I went in after dawn and noticed the meadow/lake at 7 Mile Bridge had returned to being a meadow with a river winding through it.  It snowed and rained off and on all day today.  Thankfully, the temperature was just warm enough to keep snow from accumulating on the roads until about 8:30 this evening.
 
On my way into the Park this morning, Spasm was ie at 06:15, suggesting to me that Fountain was having a double interval longer than 14 hours.  I drove through Firehole Lake Drive just in case Pink Cone hadn't started yet, but it was ie at 06:20 so I finished driving the loop and pulled into the Fountain Paint Pot parking lot.
 
Spasm had ended by the time I arrived at the overlook.  Not long after Tara Cross and Dave Monteith called me from the parking lot, and upon hearing that Fountain had not yet erupted, came up to wait with me.  Morning's Thief started bubbling shortly after I arrived (and could have been bubbling before that).  It had its first independent eruption at 06:49.
Spasm erupted again at 7:55ns, no duration because Fountain started at 08:00 and drowned out spasm.  Super Frying Pan started at 08:30 and had a 10 minute duration.  Twig started at 08:17.  Fountain's duration was 37 minutes.  Because the overnight interval averaged 8h15m and Fountain's duration was "long,"  I said I thought the next interval was going to be well over 8 hours.  Sure enough, it was.
 
I arrived at the Fountain overlook at 15:15.  First bubbling in Morning's Thief was seen at 15:51; Morning Thief's first eruption was at 18:18.  I had a 6 minute Super Frying Pan at 15:31 and an 11 minute duration eruption at 17:59.  I think this is the first time I've had a "long" duration Super Frying Pan that did not occur during Fountain's eruption.  There was a Spasm at 17:01.  I forgot to get the stop, so can only say that the duration was less than 30 minutes.
 
Fountain finally erupted at 19:00, an interval of exactly 11 hours.  Duration was 39 minutes.  Because Twig had erupted with this morning's Fountain, I wasn't expecting Twig, but it did start at 19:40.  I stayed for one 5 minute Clepsydra pause, then didn't stick around to see if it had any more pauses because, after 4 3/4 hours at the overlook, even with a big beach umbrella, snow boots, and oilcloth poncho, I was cold and starting to get wet.  
 
So, after I posted yesterday that Fountain's intervals were on a downward swing, they bottomed out, increased overnight, and increased again with today's interval.
 
Great Fountain, on the other hand, had a long interval yesterday, followed by a more normal one to the eruption this morning.  Tara and Dave did catch last night's Great Fountain--2340.  Barbara Lasseter got overflow this morning at 09:49, allowing me to safely go to Till to see the start of Till.  Great Fountain erupted at 11:08, for a "more normal" interval of 11h28m.  Many gazers stayed through Great Fountain's fourth burst, even though it was snowing, because the big geysers in the Upper Basin had already finished.  We had blue bursts with the fifth burst, after which a couple more gazers left.  Tara, Dave and I stayed through the sixth, seventh, and eighth bursts, for total duration of 97 minutes.  I suspect Great Fountain won't erupt until at least 3 or 4 in the morning.
 
Other Geysers:
While Data, Tara, Barbara and I  were standing at the Fountain Overlook, we heard part of Jim S's "morning report" and times from another person also (I'm sorry I didn't recognize your voice, so can't give you credit by name).  One of the times I wrote down was the early morning Beehive--04:16.  (I didn't write down the time of Beehive's Indicator.)  Tara wrote down all the times, but I was trying to keep the radio antenna positioned so we didn't lose the transmission.
 
Grand times--0533 and 1255 (T2C) per Polly.
 
I saw an eruption of Labial today, but still no intervals on anything in the Pink Cone group other than Box Spring, Bead, and the about 23 hour interval on Pink Cone.
 
Double interval for Till majors averaged 9h2m.  With the exception of the one double interval that averaged 9h30m, Till has stayed at 9h +/- about 3 minutes on all the other computed intervals (very few closed, most doubles).
 
Non geyser news:  While we were waiting for Fountain, Tara suddenly said "Look" in an excited voice.  I couldn't figure out what geyser had gotten her so excited.  Then she explained she had seen a weasel--a brown one with a black tip on its tail.  Tara, Dave, Barb Lasseter and I had a few minutes respite from trying to ignore the stinging pellets of icy snow while we focused our attention on watching the weasel scamper around through dead trees.  Speaking of dead trees--the apple and cherry tree will be missed.
 
Yesterday I didn't see any buses on Firehole Lake Drive.  Today I saw two.  At 08:52 as I was headed toward Great Fountain, a large RV and a Lewis Stage Tauck Tour bus (one of those Greyhound size buses) out of Utah were parked at Firehole Spring.  At 09:44 a Lamoille Valley bus, again Greyhound size, with green and white Vermont license plates pulled through.  The Vermont license plate even has B U S on the plate, but maybe that's short for "business" rather than outright saying "bus" on the plate.
 
When I was commenting to the gazers who had gathered for Great Fountain's impending eruption, several gazers reiterated that the little signs are hard to see.  Interestingly, this morning snow had covered the words "Firehole Lake Drive" on one of the highway signs, but had left the little pictures clear.  People then said the problem is that the pictures are so small that you really don't know what they are supposed to represent.  Paul Strasser said one of the signs looked like a duck and the other looked like a waffle and why couldn't ducks fly back there and why couldn't people eat waffles.
 
Yesterday I noted many, many fishermen in the Firehole River.  While I was parked at a pullout along the river to watch Flood, I noticed five osprey circling round and round.  I think they were disturbed over the human competition because there wasn't enough space between the fishermen for the osprey to dive to catch a fish.  
 
Lynn 		 	   		  
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