[Geysers] Weekly Summary 06/24-06/30

[Micah Kipple]

My observations for this week. 


Anemone:Big is continuing it's durations of between 25-25 seconds, with 
intervals anywhere from 6-12 minutes with most of them falling between 
8-10. I have seen promising evidence that it is connected with 
Improbable due to several Big starts being preceded by only a second or 
two of a larger than normal boil by Improbable. 


Little also hasn't had any dramatic change in it's activity, it's intervals 
varying from 4 to almost 20 minutes. It's duration also is all over the 
place, some eruptions will be splashing 1-2 feet for 30 seconds and then drain, while others last for upwards of 6 minutes with large explosive 
bursts (for little) up to 5 feet. 

I have seen concerts started by both Big and Little this week. When 
Little initiates the concert it will usually fill and erupt, and around 
the time it reaches overflow (almost always around the 30 second mark) 
Big will suddenly rise and erupt. One trend I have noticed is that Big's duration markedly drops when it has a concert sequence, sometimes 
barely hurdling the 20 second mark. When Big starts the sequence Little 
is usually full, but not showing any "Mini-Grand" characteristics, 
(waves on the pool, bubbles). Little usually starts 10-15 seconds after 
Big initiates the concert. 


Nemo (the hot area) continues to slowly sink inward and I do believe I can 
now spot the beginning outline of a crater or vent like pit that could 
be opening up. There is steam seen periodically, although I 
haven't tried to get any intervals on it, there has been no water seen. 
Nemo presents an interesting dilemma to me. On one hand It could break 
out and prove to be a 4th vent (or rather a reincarnation of the third 
vent) of the Anemone system. Or it could kill Big and Little, which 
would be a sad day indeed. I will continue to monitor it closely, I have the feeling one of these days it's either going to stop breaking 
through and fall silent, or it's going to open up nearly overnight. Only time will tell. 

Improbable:  Improbable has given me two very awesome finds this week. But I have to give 
credit to Jeff Cross for pointing out the first of them. Now Improbable 
has periods of no boiling, with only a quietly simmering pool for 30 
seconds to a minute, thus proving that it is still technically a geyser 
and not a perpetual spouter. Although I know that there are people that 
would argue against this statement, I'm calling it a geyser for my 
studies. 


The second observation I had today was when I looked up during a Little Anemone eruption and was completely startled as I saw two points of boiling in Improbable Pool, it was very brief, and I did not 
see it before or again today, but it made me do about 5 takes and blink 
to make sure I wasn't seeing things. No, there is a second source of 
boiling somewhere to the left of the pool as opposed to the right where 
the boils (eruptions) we are used to seeing usually issue from. I have 
not read the Transactions article on Improbable yet so I am not sure if 
there were already two known vents or not, It's just I had never seen it boil before and it got me very excited. There was no marked change or 
reaction from Anemone, but if that vent is new, depending on how new, could it explain the absence of our dearly beloved Plume? 

Moving along the hill...

Mouth:Mouth is now filled with foamy water and it's crater has taken on a 
orange hue, I have spoken with a couple other gazers about this and the opinion seems to be divided as to 
whether the crater is filled just by the runoff from Dragon and Marmot 
Cave, or because it's adding it's own water to the mix. I seem to think 
it's the later because Mouth has been empty for the entire early part of the season (to my knowledge) and it only began to fill within 
the last two weeks. However, even if it is adding it's own water to the 
mix, I still am holding off hope for eruptions as long as the runoff 
from above is pouring into it, especially now that there is cynobacteria growing in the crater. 


 Goggles: TheGoggles have continued their pattern of overflow about every ten 
minutes and lasting for 2 minutes. At the end of a lion series today 
several other gazers and myself were startled by a fairly strong boil in North Goggles that made all of us lean forward and stare towards it 
until it dropped again. I heard that it does that after lion series 
normally, but I'm not exactly sure if we should just wave it off since 
it just erupted last year. But I haven't studies NG before so I wouldn't know. 


I will have more on the Dwarfs next week. 


Below Pump Geyser the new looking bubbler is still active, when Jeff Cross 
took a look at it he said he hadn't seen it before, so if it is fairly 
new, it could be worth keeping an eye on in case it expands, since it's 
literally only 2 feet from the boardwalk, if that. 


Model and Slot Geysers are both supposedly active. Model is erupting every few minutes, and 
Jeff and I saw Slot (?) erupting on Saturday as we walked around the 
hill. 


Topsoil Springhas been below overflow all week, with it reaching a low point of about 8" below overflow near the middle of the week, and is now climbing back up towards overflow, hopefully we get another episode of thumps and 
another eruption within the next couple days. 

In the Bush GroupI have only seen one vent this week and that was only about 2 or 3 
times when I checked on it while waiting for Grand. The vent in question is the largest I have observed, located at the base a small mound West 
of the Economics the height when it's active is maybe 2-3 feet above ground level. 


I have begun travelling down basin for Riverside to keep an eye on the Riverside Intermittent Springs, hopefully I will have some conclusions for you on them next week.

Round Spring Geyserand UNNG-RSG-2 beside it are both active, although 
I
 have not sat down and studied them yet. I have also received reports 
that there are periodic 10+ foot eruptions from
 a pool somewhere around them. I might have to sit on them this week and
 verify those reports, although it is possible that it could be a 
separate freak event.


Again, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to say something. I'm always eager to learn something new. 


Micah Kipple


Geyser Gazer


Yellowstone's Clownfish
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