[Geysers] White Dome

[Lynn Stephens]

Sorry that I didn't respond to this earlier, but I have been in Yellowstone and didn't seek out internet access for the past two weeks.
 
For each of several years now I have published information about White Dome in one or two annual issues of The Sput.  For example, here is some of what I published about White Dome in the October (I think; I"m still not home, so am not certain whether this appeared in the October or December) 2009 issue:  
 
           "Descriptive statistics for White Dome intervals for 2007, 2008, and the second half of 2009 are shown in Table 6.  (Intervals are for major to major.  Minor eruptions where White Dome spurts water a few feet high for a few seconds are not included in the calculations.)  The minimum interval for all time periods was 13 minutes.  The maximum interval of 2h28m in 2007 was 21 minutes longer than the maximum interval of 2h07m in 2008 and 20 minutes longer than the maximum interval during the second half of the 2009 summer season.  The “average” interval has stayed basically the same across the three years.  The median interval for all years was 29 minutes.  The mean interval in 2007 was 34 minutes compared to the mean interval of 33 minutes in 2008.  The mean interval went back to 34 minutes during the second half of the summer 2009 season.
 





Table 6:  White Dome Intervals, 2007, 2008 and Second Half of 2009 Season


 

 

 

 


 

2007

2008

7/5/09 to 9/13/09


 

 

 

 


Minimum

13

13m

13m


Mean

34m

33m

34m


Median

29m

29m

29m


Maximum

2h28m

2h07m

2h08m


Count

392

348

189
 
            As shown in Figure 1, White Dome’s intervals are skewed toward shorter intervals, with a mode of 32 intervals in the 16-20 and 21–25 minute categories.  Distribution of the intervals in all three time periods was comparable.  In 2007 61% of the intervals were between 16 and 35 minutes; in 2008 the categories 16 to 35 minutes contained 60% of the intervals; and in the second half of the summer of 2009 63% of the intervals were between 16 and 25 minutes.  Seventy-one percent of the intervals were 35 minutes of less during the second half of the summer of 2009, and 81% were 45 minutes of less.  That wasn’t much consolation to the visitors who happened to wait during the 11% of intervals that were greater than 1 hour."
 
I won't include Figure 1 here.  But here is one of the White Dome tables/figures from the report I prepared for my summer 2009 observations:
 





Table 37:  Proportion of White Dome Geyser Intervals in Selected Categories


 

 

 

 


Year

16 – 35 minutes

16 – 45 minutes

More than an hour


 

 

 

 


2005

67.33%

80.44%

6.22%


2006

61.46%

73.02%

8.78%


2007

60.98%

74.88%

8.78%


2008

59.53%

70.00%

11.86%


2009

63.69%

74.69%

8.71%
 
As Steve noted, "long" intervals may be underrepresented because, although some of my observations were collected on individual sits of many hours, other observations were collected when I might have been at Great Fountain for 4-6 hours.  Another reason long intervals may be underrepesented is that people may not not reported the long intervals because they may have been afraid they had missed a White Dme eruption. 
 
I don't have data for 2010 because I was only in the park for one week.  I hope to get the results of my two trips (total 5 weeks) in 2011 written up in time for the October, 2011 issue of The Sput.  
 
Lynn Stephnes 



Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:46:14 +0000
From: sgryc at comcast.net
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Subject: [Geysers] White Dome






Dear All,


In June I managed a twelve-hour bun-busting White Dome sit and recorded interesting data which would indicate that White Dome has both normal and long intervals (i.e. there is a big gap between the length of the normal intervals and the longer intervals).  Twelve continuous observation still isn't a very large sample (19 eruptions), so if anyone else has closed intervals for White Dome this summer I would appreciate having your data.  Maybe my observations plus yours might add up to a short Sput article.


There may be a problem in that most geyser gazers, expecting an interval around thirty minutes, would get discouraged after 45 minutes or an hour and just give up on White Dome and leave before the long interval of around 80 minutes has elapsed.  So long intervals might be under-represented in a random sample recorded by gazers.  Long intervals seem to be less common than normal intervals, but they are not rare as per my experience.


Thanks,
Steve Gryc
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