[Geysers] "Little Crack" info (or whatever this feature in the Sprinkler group is being called)

[Karen Webb]

This is apparently one of the odds and ends I was inquiring about after 
our July trip (the other being a vent to the extreme right of 
Kaleidoscope's pool; having caught the "Twins" on this trip, I don't 
think it was the more easterly of the two)

Anyway, this would be a difficult distinction to make without the binocs 
(or maybe younger eyeballs---step in here any time, Will and Micah...), 
but the vent I've now heard called Small or Little Crack is actually a 
small complex. With the perspective you get from the overlook or main 
boardwalk on or near the stairs of the Fountain Paintpots, the two 
craters that are erupting in a very similar fashion are lined up nearly 
one behind the other and from said perspective seem very close together 
(the one to the back is slightly to the right of the one in front). I 
would have called the eruptions virtually identical and realize now I 
should have tried clocking both to see if I could get interval/duration 
info (blame this on my presence and state of heightened but narrowed 
awareness because we were there to try to catch Morning). Also 
complicating this is that there is a cone geyser to the extreme left of 
this small, compact group (sorry, I believe Cracks A and B are cones 
despite their pools in the fashion of, say, Grotto Fountain) that is 
more after the fashion of OF; no pool seems to be generated, but the 
eruption is very similar to that of the other two.

The one thing I did notice is that the forward vent fills (often has 
some water left in a little residual basin to its left) and that once it 
starts, it reaches its maximum height pretty quickly. When the back vent 
goes, its pool fills, and there seem to be two vents, each acting as a 
small sput until one (mainly I saw the right-hand vent) takes over the 
eruption and surges suddenly to full height. Between them and off to the 
left (so it's to the right of the "cone") lies a still pool that in two 
trips of watching it while trying to catch Morning did absolutely 
nothing except stay fairly full and not erupt. There is a little bitty 
sput right in front of this still pool that appeared to be a tiny 
perpetual spouter (likewise, there is a weathered formation to the right 
of this complex that seemed comprised of nothing *but* itty bitty sputs 
(I counted as many as 6).

Here's an attempt to represent graphically what I'm seeing from a bird's 
eye view:

                                                                         
                       C
                                                                         
     A     B
                                                                        
              x
                                                                        
                      D

where A=small round hole that behaves as a cone geyser
B= quiet pool
C= "back vent" (cone with pool?)
D= "front vent" (cone with pool?)
x= tiny perpetual spouter

C and D erupted often enough that if some enterprising soul wanted to 
clock them to get a sense of their behavior it might make a nice article 
for Sput or even Transactions (understanding that Sprinkler/Kaleidoscope 
has a history of frequent changes). Is it a group around which the 
energy circulates or are A, C, and D functioning independently of one 
another so it would be possible that one day they would have their own 
Trifecta?

One other thing I noticed the afternoon of the 16th was that Deep Blue's 
pool was quite low (you could see as many as 5 little sputs going off at 
once) and that Kaleidoscope's pool, though up, filled ages before we got 
the Twins eruption. I believe other observers onsite before we were 
indicated that Kaleidoscope had not gone, so that pool was full for 
quite some time before the Twins started. Is Deep Blue known to do an 
exchange of function with the other pools out there?
Karen Webb



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