[Geysers] Trip report 4-27-13 to 5-3-13 Morning eruption, Lower Basin

[Stephen Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

First I will focus on Fountain and Morning.  For Saturday 4-27 to Tuesday
4-30 Fountain appeared to be very regular with all closed intervals and
double intervals at about nine hours plus or minus one hour.  The durations
were usually in the 30-34 minute range.  Spasm would erupt one or more
times before Fountain.  Jet was sometimes active and sometimes not.  Super
Frying pan was also active (more on SFP later in the post) but it appeared
to me that SFP was mostly independent of Fountain.  It looks much like 2010
and 2011 but with a longer interval.  Twig started 20-26 minutes after
Fountain started with shorter durations of about 30 minutes.  On several
occasions Sub erupted prior to Fountain but most of these never had visible
water and the few that did only showed a quick short spray of drops.

Then on Wednesday when I was in Norris and Mammoth Maureen Edgerton
observed what we thought was a double interval of about 21 hours.  We
expected an eruption on 5-2-13 of about 1030 or after that counting a
double interval from the afternoon eruption on 5/1/13 which was at 1630
with a longer duration of 40 minutes.

I arrived in the Fountain area on 5-2-13 at about 1030 with only Clepsydra
ie.  The reactivated spring to the right of Twig was empty.  It appeared
Fountain had not erupted recently and the water level in the pool was low
but visible.  At about 1050 I noticed that Spasm was about half full of
water and lightly bubbling out of the right vent, but not boiling and
stable with no changes in water level.  About this time Clepsydra started
to weaken like it was going to shut off.  The front vents were off and the
front pool drained of water.  Over the next three hours Clepsydra varied
between two splashing vents and a third in steam phase, just two active
vents, and sometimes just one active vent.  Twice Clepsydra almost shut
off, I did not write down the first time but the second occurred at 1211/

Jet was off at first bur had boiling sounds and it had very weak spraying
at 1139 and 1250 before starting normally at 1258.  After that Jet was
regular with intervals in the 10-14 minute range with most at twelve
minutes for the rest of the day until I left at 2100.

One of the visitors we had been talking yelled Spasm started at 1315 and
when I checked on it I found it was erupting from the old vent, the left
hand or west vent to about 1-2 feet high.  The right or east vent sometimes
joined in weakly but the west vent was doing most of the erupting and all
the strong erupting until Spasm shut off prior to 1358.

Super Frying Pan erupted at 1338 with a duration of 9 minutes.  Then Twig
started at 1343 and stopped before 1358,  Over this three and a half hours
from 1030 the pool of Fountain rose over a foot well above the level needed
to start the Fountain Rise earlier in the week.  Maureen noted this level
was well above the level for an imminent eruption over the time since
opening.  But at about 1340 the pool level in Fountain started to drop,
Over the next hour and a half the pool level dropped over a foot to about
the level seen at 1030.

After that there was a normal Spasm eruption at 1610, Super Frying Pan at
1712 D=7, and a normal Spasm ie at 1841.  I saw Old Cone or the geyser next
to it at 1648 but by the time I reached the top of the hill to check which
one it was it had stopped.  The spring to the right of Twig filled
throughout the day and reached overflow before 1946.  Also, as this spring
filled up the water was muddy.  Maureen told me she had seen this spring
drain and refill one other time since the park opening.  The water level in
Fountain stayed low, visible but well below the level where the Fountain
Rise started from earlier in the week.  I watched until 2100 and finally
called it quits.

Also on 5-2-13 Jelly filled for most of the day with no runoff from Spasm
(Spasm never reached overflow) until about 1700 wen it was about two inches
below overflow.  Then it slowly dropped the rest of the day.

On 5-3-13 Bill Warnock checked Fountain at about 0700 and found there had
been a recent eruption.  I checked it at about 0800 and reached the same
conclusion.  I could not see any water around Morning, it looked like just
a Fountain eruption but I was there several hours after the eruption. We
both estimated an eruption at about 0500 to 0600 so by adding nine hours
came to an prediction of the next eruption for after 1400.

I reached the Fountain area at 1400 and found Bill and Maureen already in
the area.  At first I though I saw the pool level as OK, just an inch or so
below the level that usually started the Fountain rise earlier in the
week.  But about 15-20 minutes later the pool level looked much lower.  I
am not sure if the pool dropped or if I miss read the original pool level.
The steam was blowing into the boardwalk making the pool level hard to
see.  We had Jet at 1405, Super Frying Pan 1413 ie, then Jet at 1439, 1446,
and 1454.  Since the pool level was so low I went to the upper basin to try
to catch Grand.  I found when in the Upper Basin that Grand had already
erupted so I returned to the Fountain area.

At 1602 while I was walking past Celestine Pool I saw the steam cloud rise
over the hill and Maureen called Fountain at the same time.  When I reached
the Paint Pots I could see two distinct steam clouds and soon after saw two
large geysers erupting with the far geyser the stronger of the two.  I
called Maureen and told her it was a Morning/Fountain dual.  Viewing
conditions were not that good, the wind blew the steam from Clepsydria into
Fountain making it hard to see Morning.  I did catch one big burst that I
think was over 150 feet and several more at about 100 feet by my estimate.
Morning stopped at 1626 and Fountain continued on to stop at 1711.  Twice
during the Fountain eruption it looked like it was going to stop but both
times the left vent of Fountain boomed up out of flat water to a great
height and then the eruption continued on.

The pool to the east of Twig was full and overflowing throughout the day on
5-3-13.  The water was nearly clear and it continued to overflow during the
dual eruption.

Super Frying Pan continues to erupt in a series of rises with the first
eruption on the fourth rise usually.  The eruption is stronger with more
overflow than in the past.  The height was 10 to 15 feet and for about half
the eruptions water hit the boardwalk.  On one eruption I was standing on
the Boardwalk on the Fountain side and water drops from SFP went over my
head.  A few of the eruptions were weaker but all were at least ten feet
high.  The runoff during the larger eruptions is much larger and has washed
away more sinter, changing the width of the runoff channel and washing more
sinter downstream.

I did take some video and pictures but until I get home I won't know how
they turned out.  As I said, it was poor viewing conditions and I am afraid
most will just be grey on grey.

If I remember more I will post later,

Stephen Eide
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