[Geysers] Geyser Report 6/6 Stephens

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS REPORT IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE READERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND IS NOT TO BE REPRODUCED FOR ANYOTHER PURPOSE, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT OR THE TRANSACTIONS. When I woke up this morning, summer had turned to winter.  White flakes were flying through the air.  When I arrived at Great Fountain, the boardwalkwas covered with white stuff, as were the tops of the railings, and the trees were dusted with snow.  We had a cold bitter wind most of the day.  The sky did clear late this afternoon so we had sun on Great Fountain's eruption, and the wind was no longer blowing 30-40 miles per hour, but it was still chilly. I started and ended the day at Great Fountain.  Because of the way the wind was blowing the steam, I couldn't tell when Great Fountain went into overflow this morning.  In fact, until just before the eruption there didn't appear to be any steam on the platform at all.  This morning's eruption started at 0544, just one minute shy of a 15 hour interval.  This morning's eruption had a weak 3-minute fifth burst, so I was expecting a 12 - 12 1/2 hour interval.  Maureen caught a 12 minute false overflow, which probably delayed the eruption a little.  Great fountain erupted this evening at 1857, for a 13h13m interval.  The first burst had a huge blue bubble, and a jet that went a good 150 feet high.  It had a short fourth burst, that lasted only 4 minutes, and a weak fifth burst that lasted only 3 minutes, so I'm expecting a 12-13 hour interval overnight. After Great Fountain I parked down on the flat to keep an eye on Fountain.  After awhile I went up to the Fountain overlook.  The wind was so cold that I didn't take my gloves off to record exactly when I arrived, and didn't take my book out to write down Bearclaw or Jet.  I do know that there were no eruptions of Morning's Thief from 7 am until Fountain finally erupted.  Ron and Stephen Gemar were at the Fountain Overlook also waiting for Fountain.  The water levels in Fountain and Morning were about the same as they were when Fountain erupted yesterday, and the day before, and the day before--in other words, about the same levels I've seen the past three weeks.  The only difference was that Morning's Thief didn't come up and bubble.  We recorded a closed interval for Super Frying Pan of 3h03m.  We kept taking turns going to the parking lot for various reasons so we always had two people on duty watching for Morning's Thief and/or Spasm, neither of which erupted.  Finally Stephen said he could get Fountain to erupt because he was going to go get some food.  Ron noticed Fountain's pool level starting to rise, then Fountain's right vent splashed and the eruption started at 1243, 27h51m after the last observed eruption of Fountain.  Fountain's duration was only 32 minutes.  Twig started 30 minutes after Fountain started. The only other geyser information I have is a Pink Cone start at 1340, for an approximate interval of 22 3/4 hours.  The preceding 5 intervals averaged around 21 hours.  I did not stay for Pink Cone's duration. Ron and Stephen and I were bundled up against the cold wind and occasional snow flurries while waiting for Fountain.  I commented the only good thing about the wind was that it had cleared the smoke and haze from the Idaho sagebrush fire out of the air.  To keep ourselves entertained we watched people walking by dressed for summer instead of winter--short sleeved shirts, sandals, shorts, but usually not all three on the same person.  As we were leaving after Fountain's eruption, I spotted the outfit of the day however.  A slender young woman was watching the mudpots.  She had on open toed sandals with about 3-inch heels and a strap around her ankles.  She was wearing a knee-length black and white checkered flared skirt of a lightweight material that the wind was having no problem blowing around.  Her black jacket was long-sleeved, but lightweight, ended at her waist, and said "Wisconsin skinnies" on the back.  Her reddish colored hair was worn in a French roll running from the bottom of one ear to the bottom of the other.  A pork-pie hat made of straw was perched at an angle on the left side of her head.   Overall she was quite fashionably dressed, but certainly not appropriately dressed for looking at thermal features. A ditch was dug along the south side of Firehole Lake Drive where the water from Tangled Creek has been nearly covering the roadway.  Hopefully that will eliminate the huge puddle across the road. I saw marmots today at the rock wall at Artemisia. This evening a woman was saying to her male companion that she wished she could call a friend to ask him how to determine when Great Fountain would erupt.  Thinking I would be helpful, I gave her the half-hour prediction.  She said she thought it erupted from an empty pool.  I replied, no, the pool needs to be full and overflowing.  She repeated that the pool had to be empty--she'd seen it erupt from an empty pool before.  I suggested she read the Great Fountain sign, and after doing so, they decided to stay for the eruption. I will make a trip into the park tomorrow, but it will be for fun rather than collecting data, so this will probably be my final report for this year. Lynn Stephens 		 	   		  
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