[Geysers] Rift 07/4 and 07/9

[Micah Kipple]

Rift decided that Grand's had enough stage time. 

On the Fourth of July around 1910 I wandered over from a post eruptive Grand and past a West Triplet that was well past a half hour into it's eruption. The Partners joined me and we waited for a Rift start for some more eruptive entertainment. Little did we ALL know...|

Rift started normally at 1920, it's vents popping into existence one at a time from the fractures and piles of rubble that marked them, we settled in to watch it for a bit, then all hell began to break loose. At the point where the eruption would be at it's high point, the main vent continued to build until there were Penta-like spikes reaching past the top of the large boulder perched on the hillside above Rift, easily 8 feet or more. At the same time, the eruption began to hurl golf ball sized rocks like they were Styrofoam, sending them plopping back into the pool, it was like watching popcorn on a giant scale. The main vent continued to be huge for at least 30 minutes into the eruption, and rocks were seen in both main vent and the vent just to the left of it for another 20 minutes. finally around 80 or so minutes into the eruption, the force began to die down, although main vent was still jetting to 5 or so feet, and pebbles were being thrown by the
 vent to the left.

 At around 90 minutes the system began to shut down. Main vent switched into a hissing steam phase, with two twin steam jets jetting considerably out of small cracks in the rubble pile that it issues from. At the same time the observers of this event noticed that the vent to the left of main vent had both widened and deepened through the force of the eruption. I didn't stay for the duration of the steam phase as Will and I had to go meet with another Gazer at the Giant Cage. 

I treated Rift as an isolated event until today, Tuesday July 9th, while waiting for Grand. West Triplet had started at 1037 and I had wandered up around 1100, seeing that West was now about 20 minutes into it's eruption and showed no signs of stopping, I sauntered over to Rift which was steaming considerably. Finally at 1108 main vent bubbled into existence. Getting a funny feeling I decided I would tape the start even though I had been told that Rift had been acting normally the past few days. Of course, as soon as I whipped the camera out main vent began spitting rocks like a small volcano. I flipped my camera off and radioed to the other gazers waiting for Grand that Rift was throwing rocks again. At the same time Main vent increased in vigor and was erupting to 4 feet by the time the gazers came past West Triplet. Just before the group came into view of Rift, main vent upended a large chunk of geyserite that was at least 7" by 5" (complete
 guesstimate, but it was big) and tossed it a foot or two in the air. The group watched Rift erupt for a while, taking lots of photos and videos, then moved on. By the time I left for work, Rift had calmed down and was erupting normally with the exception of the left vent next to Main, which was still peppering in small pebbles with it's splashing. According to Will there was no steam phase after. 

I will continue to monitor Rift throughout the summer, I'm hoping this doesn't effect Grand, but this energy has to be coming from somewhere. 

Enjoy the little Things

Micah Kipple
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