[Geysers] North Goggles data on GOSA web site + an extra eruption today

[Graham Meech]

Thanks for the detailed info David.  I agree that these look like separate
series given North Goggles was under close observation.

 

For the record, there was another North Goggles minor seen today at 1634ie
2/15/2012.  Also it's interesting that no Lion eruptions have been reported
for the last 3 days which makes me curious if it is erupting at night or
not.

 

Go North Goggles Go!

 

Graham Meech

 

From: geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu
[mailto:geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu] On Behalf Of David Schwarz
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:34 PM
To: Geyser Observation Reports
Subject: Re: [Geysers] North Goggles data on GOSA web site

 

 

   Briefly, those are actually:

 

   A series of 5, a series of 4, and a series of 2 on June 29-30, 2000.

 

   A series of 1 and a series of 8 on July 22, 1994.

 

   Longer explanation:

 

   In the '90s, the rule of thumb was that North Goggle majors were
exceedingly rare, but series of minors tended to start within two or three
hours after a Lion series.  The related extended overflow (see next
paragraph) often started around the time Lion would have been expected had
the Lion series continued.

 

   North Goggles eruptions were always preceded by an exceptionally long
overflow of 20+ minutes.  Majors occurred during the overflow--an overflow
that lasted over 60 minutes generally prompted some hope for a major.
Minors occurred after an extended overflow ended, on a subsequent
refill--oddly, usually not the first after the extended overflow, although
the first fill _would_ usually be accompanied by some splashing and boiling.
Once one minor had taken place, a followup (ie, part of a series) could
occur on subsequent refills, with a gap of up to two non-eruptive refills on
10-20 minute intervals in between.

 

   With that in mind, here's what happened with that July 22, 1994 series,
which I wrote about yesterday but mistakenly placed in 1995:

 

   The geyser had a extended overflow during the Lion series the morning of
July 22, around the time of the third Lion in the series.  This was a bit
early, but not an unheard of time for an extended overflow.  The overflow
lasted long enough to give us hope for a minor, which indeed happened at
11:20.

 

   Then things got weird.  Normally, a North Goggle minor meant that we were
done with the Lion series, so we were pretty taken aback when Lion erupted
again at 11:29.  We were even more taken aback when North Goggle refilled
and immediately went into another extended overflow--sort of--starting
sometime around 11:40.  I say "sort of" because the water level stayed high
but well below overflow, pulsating the way it does when overflowing.

 

   This non-overflow was quite long.  Unfortunately, my note-taking
discipline as a teenager wasn't what it could have been, so I can't tell you
how long, but it was long enough that North Goggle started boiling and
doming the way it does when it's building up to a major.  Well over an hour.
Just when it was looking really promising, it unceremoniously drained out of
sight.

 

   Within a minute or two, both North Goggle and Goggles Spring starting
loudly rumbling and thrashing at depth.  Both splashed visibly within their
craters from a very deep water level, even putting some spray and droplets
over their rims.  After an unusually long recovery, they refilled, boiled
heavily, and failed to erupt, so we wandered off to Giantess, which was
having impressive and frequent boils that day.

 

   From Giantess, we saw the first North Goggle eruption of the new series.
It's slightly possible that we missed an eruption or two in some of the
longer gaps in the data because we really weren't expecting any more after
three or four and kept wandering off.  Once we decided to settle and keep a
close eye on it, it had one more eruption and then visibly cooled off
(stopped boiling during overflows).  Lion started a new series shortly
thereafter.

   At the time this was by far the longest series of the 1993+ active phase,
and the only time that a series lasted essentially until the next Lion
series.

 

   I wasn't there in 2000, but that data looks very clearly like three
1990's-style series.  The Lions at 1824, 0233, and 0856 are initials, as
almost certainly are the corresponding North Goggles at 2355, 0605, and
1235.  At 5 eruptions, the first series is still remarkably long.  It's also
remarkable, at least by the standards of the 1990s, how close the last
eruptions of the first and second series came to the subsequent Lion
initial.

 

David Schwarz 

 

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