[Geysers] Geyser Report 1/14/12-1/21/12

[Graham Meech]

I had another great trip in Yellowstone during MLK week.  The weather was
rather windy and snowy but it was fun to see some geysers again.  Here is a
quick summary.

 

Norris

 

I took the afternoon snowcoach tour to Norris on Saturday 14 Jan.  The new
accessible boardwalk around Steamboat is now open, delivering people to the
lower platform and then looping back out from there and winding down to
Cistern Spring.  I didn't watch Steamboat long enough to know what it was
doing.  Veteran had clear water in the pool which was a nice surprise since
it was low and red with bacteria and looked like the vent was clogged in
September.  Most of the beaded rocks were covered and it was having nice
minor eruptions but the water level didn't look like it was changing and
there was no evidence of major eruptions.  Maybe in the summer it will get
going again.

 

It appears I arrived at Vixen just after a Major since there was a lot of
water pooled outside the vent which slowly drained away as I watched.  The
runoff is going straight away from the boardwalk rather than running into
the trail.

 

Pearl was a quiet overflowing spring.

 

In Porcelain Basin all I saw was a weak eruption of Arsenic but did not have
long to stick around and see if anything else was active.

 

 

Upper Geyser Basin

 

I arrived at OF on Sunday 1/15 just minutes after Beehive erupted on the
last sunny day.  I saw three Beehive eruptions during the week, one had
bubblers and close-to-cone, one only bubblers, and one where I didn't see
the bubblers before Beehive.  I missed the daylight eruption on the 20th
which occurred earlier than I expected, interval between reports of 22h17m.
The indicator was active for all the eruptions I saw (the first eruption
after I left on the 21st was reported as not having an indicator on the
webcam).

 

Plume was one of the most interesting geysers during my trip.  On Sunday
1/15 its intervals were 50-63 minutes.

Monday 1/16 - Plume intervals were 79-88 minutes - a jump of 30 minutes. 

Tuesday 1/17 - No Plume eruptions seen, vent was snowed in.

Wednesday 1/18 - No Plume eruptions seen, vent was snowed in.

Thursday 1/19 - One Plume reported  at 1201 and the snow was cleared away.

Friday 1/20 - Plume intervals around 90 minutes.

 

Depression intervals were about 3 hours on the 16th and then it quit
erupting in daylight until a webcam report on the 20th and then more webcam
reports around 3 hours on 22 and 23 Jan after I left.  I did see one "false
eruption" where it flooded and then drained as if it had erupted but there
were no splashes.  During the dormancy I saw it doing its usual cycling with
heavy overflow and a drop of a few inches every 35-50 minutes which was
similar to its activity in September.

 

Aurum intervals were 3h3m to 4h26m.  Back in its usual winter mode with a
steady buildup in activity to the eruption.  The longest interval had much
stronger activity than the others but just couldn't get going for a "long"
time.  The ice bowl was very slick when I arrived after a long period of
sunshine and no snow.  Once the snow started up on Monday it was quite easy
to get over.

 

Lion had some nice long series and was seen every day.

 

Little Squirt was active on 18 Jan.

 

Dome was active on 21 Jan with intervals around 20 minutes.  On the same day
I saw the small UNNG near the top of the slope above Beehive.  I only
remember seeing it when Giantess erupted before but Beehive watchers should
know if it's more frequent.

 

Giantess missed its chance to erupt in its 124-128 day range (its prior two
intervals were 124 and 128 days) and we are still waiting for it and
expecting something soon after all the odd things happening on Geyser
Hill.......  Giant missed its chance to erupt while I was there so now its
interval is over 2 years - ug!

 

Old Faithful - long durations are still followed by  88 minute interval
predictions by the VEC staff and that gets most eruptions in the window.

 

Grand intervals were mostly in the 7-8 hour range - there didn't seem to be
any really long intervals but there are a lot of missed eruptions this time
of year too and I didn't record all the electronic data either.  I saw 6
eruptions which is nice for the winter, catching two eruptions on the 19th
and 20th.  Burst count was not very impressive:

T1C

D3/T1C

T1C

T1Q

G2C (Grand started 15min after the previous Turban)

G1Q (Rift started  9min before Grand and lasted >30min)

 

Bulger had frequent minors during my trip.  Bulger's Hole was completely
snowed over at one point but did clear its vent.  There was no indication it
erupted.

 

Penta had one mixed steam and water eruption and a steam eruption.  Since
its runoff channel was full of snow there did not appear to have been any
full up eruptions.  At one point its two lower vents were snowed over too.

 

I saw two Uncertain eruptions, one with Sawmill on the 28th that I noticed
22min after I saw Sawmill going (Sawmill 1328ie, Uncertain 1350ie).  That
seems a fairly long time after Sawmill started to me.

 

"Nifty" was active a couple of times.

 

Oblong was seen a few times with intervals maybe 3-4 hours apart.

 

Daisy had some long intervals on the windy days based on the electronic data
(eruption at 01xx and then nothing through 1000).  It was mostly around 3
hours otherwise.

 

No real data on Grotto other than it is active and I saw one start with
Grotto Fountain and South Grotto Fountain erupting.  I didn't spend time
there to see what Rocket was doing.

 

F&M - On the 16th I stopped at F&M since there was steam coming from Main
Vent.  There was some good Main Vent splashing, Bottom Vent splashing, and a
River Vent pause but still no F&M eruption.

 

Black Sand Pool is still thumping.  It was active every 2-5 minutes while I
watched it for 20min.  Nothing unusual to report in Black Sand Basin.
Spouter, Cliff, Ragged, Jagged, Cinnamon, and one geyser in the Handkerchief
area were seen active.

 

Biscuit Basin - nothing too exciting erupted for me.  Rusty, Jewel (12-15
min), Shell, Island, Avoca (minor eruptions no runoff), Mustard all seen.  I
did see a couple of eruptions of Cauliflower - just a couple of bursts 2-4'
each.  After seeing it once I waited 20min but the water level dropped and I
moved on.  On my way back the water was up and I stayed, watched it flood
and then erupt.  Interval between my sightings was 104 minutes.  Black
Diamond did not erupt (but it was reported on Friday 13th, 1200ie vr).  One
of the Salt and Pepper vents was active - maybe the other one was too but it
was hard to see through steam and snow.

 

Lower Geyser Basin

Just a short visit on 21st and all I saw was one Jet eruption, interval to
the next eruption was >20m.

 

I was fortunate not to get snowed in as the roadways were closed to all
over-snow traffic at times.  By the time Saturday came around the weather
was clearing up.  Maybe the weather will be nicer for me next winter ..... 

 

Graham Meech.

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