[Geysers] Trip Report April 29 to May 6 Fountain Group

[Stephen Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

Thanks to Maureen for the Fountain report, I was going to write this when I
got back from the park on Monday but I'm late as usual.  I will try to add
a little to what Maureen has already reported and then get on to the other
basins.  To repeat Fountain is erupting at about a 12 hour interval and has
been remarkably regular.  The range appears to be 10.5 to 13 hours but this
is mostly based on double intervals.  Like Maureen said the height of
Fountain's pool has been about 20 inches below the rim when the Fountain
rise occurs.  The height of Morning's pool is about 6 to 8 inches below the
rim when the Fountain rise starts.  It appeared to me that Fountain "froze"
at that height for an hour or two, then would start to rise and fall about
a centimeter or so for an hour or more before the Fountain rise started.
The durations of Fountain were in the 31 to 49 minute range, most of them
over 40 minutes.

Jet has been showing longer intervals in the 8 to 20 minute range.  The
eruptions are perhaps a bit stronger.  Whenever I saw Super Frying Pan
erupt it did not shut Jet off and only some times resulted in a delay in
the next Jet eruption.  This is based on only a few Super Frying Pan
eruptions.  The eruptions of Super Frying Pan appear to have more runoff.
Also usually Super Frying Pan will rise up and overflow, then drop a few
inches, then rise up again and erupt.  Two of the Super Frying Pans I saw
had two rise and drops before the eruption started on the third rise.

Bearclaw is more active with eruptions 6 inches to 18 inches high.  The
intervals were in the 11-19 minute range with most in the tighter 16-18
minute range.

Spasm is different in a few ways.  Over the last few years Spasm would rise
(boiling) and fall about every 4 minutes, each one a bit higher until the
eruption started.  Now Spasm rises to the point the boiling is just visible
deep in the vent and then just sits there boiling for an hour or longer.
After that it rises up to the usual eruption.  All the eruptions I saw had
a long duration of about an hour, almost always filling Jelly and
overflowing beyond Jelly.

Jelly without the Spasm overflow appears to be cooler and has green growth
in the pool.

Maureen already reported the info on Morning's Thief.  She saw lots of
eruptions before Fountain until I arrived.  While I was there Morning's
Thief had no big eruptions.  After Fountain started several minutes later
Morning's Thief would start to erupt as it did a decade ago, boiling in the
3-8 foot range for up to 12 minutes before Morning overflowed into it and
quenched the eruption.  Then after I left Morning's Thief when back to
having several eruptions an hour for the hour or three before Fountain
started its eruption and then two or perhaps three after Fountain started.
I guess Morning's Thief doesn't like me.

Nothing was seem from Sub Geyser.  Clepsidera is normal, the one time we
waited to see if it would shut off it did; it stopped eleven minutes after
Fountain quit and was off for four minutes.  Nothing different was seen
from the geysers farther out from Clepsidrea.

The hole that appeared behind the bench between Super Frying Pan and Jelly
is now filled with gravel from the runoff from Super Frying Pan and Jet.
You can't even tell it was there.
The boardwalk from the "walk slippery when wet" sign to almost Spasm had a
light dusting of new sinter on it.  At first I wondered if Fountain had
spit out some sinter from its pluming system but I think it is more likely
this was just debris from some winter spauling of the sinter on the sides
of Fountain.

More on the other basins tomorrow.

Stephen J.Eide
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