[Geysers] Geyser Report june 5, Stephens

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS REPORT IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE READERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND IS NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT OR TRANSACTIONS. I started the day by sitting in front of Great Fountain for about 10 minutes waiting to see if it would have any significant bursting, which it didn't, so I concluded it had finished before 0500. I stopped for a Till major (interval 10h08m), then proceeded to the Upper Basin, hoping to catch an early morning Beehive.  Unfortunately, it erupted while I was waiting to see whether Great Fountain had finished its eruption.  I spent awhile on Geyser Hill, noting that White was active.  Plume had intervals of 44 and 45 minutes.  Little Cub had durations of 7 and 8 minutes, separated by an interval of 43 minutes.  Between 0558 and 0630, when I stopped recording them, Lion had several roars with water, many roars without water, and a "minor" at 0613 with about 4-5 feet of water for 10-20 seconds.  As I left Geyser Hill, I noted that Bronze was boiling up about a foot high and the water was murky. Morning's Thief broke the two short intervals followed by Fountain pattern this morning.  We had intervals of 9 minutes, 12 minutes, 14 minutes, then 10 minutes, and then 5 minutes later Fountain erupted.  Technically we still haven't had two consecutive intervals of 10 minutes or less without Fountain being the next event, but 12 and 14 are getting pretty close to 10. I spent 45 minutes watching Slide from the trail on the west side of the Firehole River, and didn't see any eruptive activity during that period.  As I was walking back to the pickup, I noted Cauliflower had a big boil at 1123.  Also, there is a feature in the "200" group of the Old Road Group that was splashing 1-3 feet high for at least 15 minutes.  I don't remember seeing it yesterday, but perhaps my mind was on other things. The bridge near Cauliflower had two broken boards.  An orange highway cone and two little orange flags had been used to warn people about the broken boards.  The bridge was fixed yesterday.  Two pieces of plywood were screwed to the logs to cover up the broken spots.  The plywood is painted a bright orange, presumably to warn people that there's about an inch difference between the level of the plywood and the level of the logs. Since I had seen people walking both directions along the rock wall above Artemisia, I decided to cross over to the trail from Biscuit Basin and go up to Artemisia/Atomizer.  When I arrived at Artemisia at 1155, the water level was down about the same level it had been yesterday morning about 0700.  We still don't have any intervals for Artemisia yet this year.  After watching Atomizer rise and fall, rise and fall, I finally got to see a 37 second minor.  Projecting out to when the major might happen, I decided to head to the Lower Basin.  The only wildlife I saw on either trail was a little garter snake and a big bull bison that was savagely attacking a 12 foot pine tree.  Yesterday a man was upset because the rangers had told him he was too close to the bison.  He tried to tell the rangers there were trees between him and the bison and the bison couldn't run through trees.  I've seen them run through trees, and I've also seen them destroy trees, like this bull was doing today.  I wish that man could have seen the bison tearing that tree apart and then maybe he would have understood why the rangers were upset. I parked over at Pink Cone, recorded a few intervals on Bead and Box Spring, and was watching the steam around Labial's vents periodically increase in intensity when Donna Friz called to tell me Great Fountain was boiling a lot.  Just as I started to leave, Labial finally erupted.  I arrived at Great Fountain just in time to park the pickup and walk out to the benches where Ralph, Donna, and Maureen were sitting.  They told me Great Fountain had had a "yard" boil, but hadn't had a meter boil yet.  Probably less than a minute later the pool boiled up into a meter boil.  The bursting started immediately, but it was just putzing along for about 90 seconds until suddenly a massive column lifted with jets coming out the top that were probably about 175 feet high.  Then a second massive burst went up, sending a huge wave of water up over the edge of the sinter and into the grass.   The wind was blowing toward the parking lot and I noted the pavement at the north end of the parking lot looked wet.  The car at the farthest north was a little white car.  Next to it was a small red car.  And next to it was the Friz's car.  When I commented on the wet pavement, someone said they could see drops of water on the red car.  Some visitors sitting near us heard the comment, said "That's our car."  Maureen told them they should probably try to wipe the water off before it dried since it would leave spots, unless it was a rental car so they didn't really care about it.  They indicated it wasn't a rental, but waited until after either the second or third burst to go clean it off. In the meantime, Ralph said their car had probably also gotten hit.  Donna said she'd go check it during the pause between the first and second bursts.  She also said it was a good thing they had a full roll of paper towels.  A few minutes later Ralph decided not to wait because although dark clouds were starting to move toward us from the southeast, the day was still warm and windy and the pavement in the parking lot was drying quickly.  We could see Ralph with the roll of paper towels wiping down the entire car.  While he was doing that, Donna commented that when Steamboat coated their camper, they just left Steamboat on the camper, but a Great Fountain superburst didn't rate quite as high on the scale as an eruption of Steamboat.  When Ralph came back Donna tried to get him to admit that seeing a superburst was worth getting the car wet.  He said he certainly was glad to see a superburst, but Donna never got him to agree that it was worth getting the car wet. I stayed for Great Fountain's duration, hoping it would have 7 full bursts, sending it out for a 16 hour interval, which would mean I would probably catch the beginning of the eruption tomorrow morning (16 hour interval would put it at 6:45 am.)   It did have a 5 minute sixth burst, but the seventh burst consisted of nothing other than "coning" where the water pyramids up maybe 6-10 feet above the crater rim but all the water drops back into the crater.  Ralph asked what interval I would predict with a six burst eruption.  Since the only long duration eruption I've timed was the 7 burst eruption that resulted in a 16 hour interval, I had to waffle and say I'm almost certain the interval will be at least 13 hours, and probably at least 14 hours, but don't know whether it will go out as far as 15 hours.   Tour guide comment of the day at Fountain overlook.  One group came through while Fountain was erupting.  When one of the visitors asked the guide how long the eruption would last, the guide replied "Oh, a number of minutes."  The answer is correct, but has absolutely no information value! I'll be picking up a comment form to send to Mammoth before I leave this trip.  The signs in front of Goggles Spring and North Goggles Geyser look quite new.  The paint is not the least bit faded or cracked.  Unfortunately, while the sign for Goggles Spring is correct, the other sign reads "North Goggle Geyser."   Lynn Stephens  		 	   		  
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