[Geysers] North Goggles Major and Goggles Spring -- 4/22/2012 @ 1950

[JEFFREY CROSS]

Is North Goggles throwing out debris?

In 1994(?), I was intrigued by some rocks I found lying next to the trail in front of North Goggles.  At first, I thought that they were pieces of asphalt that some thoughtless person had thrown into the geyser, and which the geyser had recently thrown out during a major eruption.  Since the rocks were close enough to the trail to pick up, I thought that perhaps they should be removed to prevent another thoughtless person from throwing them back into North Goggles.  With the rocks in hand, I was about to hurl them into the woods when I noticed that they weren't asphalt at all.  They were made of obsidian sand cemented by sinter.  Since I cannot think of any place on or near Geyser Hill where these rocks are exposed at the surface, it's possible that the rocks were thrown out of North Goggles, and that they originated in strata buried deeply beneath the surface.

I've always wondered what the boundary between the deepest sinter and the bedrock of Geyser Hill looks like.  This was the surface across which the first hot spring waters flowed when Geyser Hill began to form.  Today, that surface is doubtless buried deep beneath the surface.  But how deep?

It's also occurred to me that the sinter-bedrock plane could be a good place to form a large, open cavity that could serve as a geyser reservoir, and that the ejection of rocks from this level would be a process that would form such a cavity.  It could explain groups of geysers like the Pink Cone Group, where all the geyser eruptions seem to be of similar magnitude.  Perhaps the sinter in the Pink Cone Group is of uniform thickness, and the geysers that erupt from vents in that sinter all have reservoirs at the same depth, specifically at the location where the sinter meets the bedrock?

Notably, a reservoir lying at the junction of the sinter and the bedrock cannot be invoked in all cases.  Steamboat Geyser is a notable example of a geyser that erupts directly from the bedrock, and many other similar examples exist to demonstrate that thick layers of sinter are not necessary for a geyser's plumbing system to form.

Jeff Cross
jeff.cross at utah.edu


________________________________
From: geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu [geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu] on behalf of Jacob Young [jakefrisbee at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 10:08 PM
To: 'Geyser Reports'
Subject: [Geysers] North Goggles Major and Goggles Spring -- 4/22/2012 @ 1950

Hello,
I visited Yellowstone this past weekend with my girlfriend Diana for my first ever Old Faithful opening weekend and was able to witness a major eruption of North Goggles that was accompanied by a bursting eruption of Goggles Spring.

I've posted a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGyFoLNaI2U&feature=youtu.be

The eruption started within 2 minutes of Lion Geyser finishing its (at least) 18th eruption in a series.  Both North Goggles and Goggles were boiling continuously about 2 inches below overflow and North Goggles was rising into 4-6 inch boils (sometimes a foot!) every 30 seconds or so when we arrived just minutes before Lion's eruption at 1945. North Goggles certainly looked ready to erupt.  This activity continued during Lion's eruption and afterwards until one of the bigger boils built into the eruption.  The setting sun came out from behind the clouds on the horizon and cast a beautiful light on this spectacular eruption and we were the only ones there to enjoy it!  I feel very lucky to have been there for what will surely be a much sought-after event for all gazers this season!

I know very little about The Goggles, but I know Goggles Spring eruptions are rare.  I seem to recall talk of Goggles Spring once erupting over the boardwalk, which it didn't do this time, but you can see in the video that it was "belching" water to 5 feet or so from somewhere down inside the cone.  Graham Meech has commented that Goggles Spring may have been active during a previous North Goggles major this spring as seen on the webcam so I suspect this event might be becoming a little more common.

Lion had another major eruption an hour later at 2047 on its first roar and it didn't struggle one bit to erupt as it sometimes can do.  The Goggles had been rumbling at depth for at least 10 minutes after their eruption, but were quiet now and had almost no steam.  I don't know if that was the end of the Lion series or not, but I left feeling satisfied.



Happy Gazing,
Jake




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