[Geysers] Vixen Geyser: pre and post shutdown

[MA Bellingham]

Gazer Greetings –


The following observations and opinions are purely my own, change at Norris is what is constant. 


This summer I was unable to get to Norris as much as I would like until late August.  I gleaned times from anyone I could, and updated geysertimes.org from the Norris VC logbook and information from others.  My opinion in late August was that it was behaving much as it has the last few years, erupting for a minute or two every 60 – 90 minutes.  That information is on GT if you wish to study it yourself.


Between Friday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend the intervals abruptly switched from around 60 minutes to about 30 minutes, which I thought was great as the colder days were upon us and the wait would be shorter.



My last visit was on Sept 29 prior to the Govt. shutdown, I only stayed for one closed interval, but got one last look at the logbook before Norris staff left for their scheduled closure.  The Park, as you know, then closed on Oct 1, and reopened on Oct 18.  Upon arrival on Oct 19 Kent Morby and I discovered while the government was shut down, Vixen was working overtime! Intervals radically dropped to under ten minutes!  These eruptions were mostly very brief, and “long” was over one minute, with the exception of one three minute and one six minute duration.  After a lunch break and Whirligig check, I went back and witnessed a string of majors ranging from 10 – 29 minutes. That day I witnessed 42 eruptions. 


We returned the following day to observe more of this, a Vixen lover’s dream!  The amazing behavior continued and we were later joined by Dan Schaffer and observed a major of 39 minutes, among others.



In August and September I was starting to get a handle on the sounds of water returning to the system to gauge when to expect the next eruption; the quiet phase, the first gurgle, first water sounds from the nearby sinkhole, etc. and could wander around and come back to check on noises between eruptions.  What is intriguing is that the October Vixens still display the wonderful drain sounds at the end, but the water noises start almost immediately afterwards, if there is a quiet period, it only lasts a minute or less. 



I returned again yesterday, the weather was too nice to stay away. The longest major observed was 5 minutes.  It could be luck of the draw, or could mean the "major" frequencies are diminishing; there is no way to know until I watch it some more until closing day. 


Lest you think I should classify the multiple short eruptions as “minors” in GT, I will describe them as full bodied with good reach, like a fine wine!  They are hearty with good height even in a 30 second eruption.  It’s really fun!



If you arrive upon scene near the end of an eruption, the general rule I am using from this fall’s observations is that a 1 minute eruption fills the immediate crater platform, 2 minutes the overflow begins to creep towards the sinkhole under the boardwalk, 3 minutes it reaches the runoff channel that leads under the boardwalk to the north, and 4 minutes the sinkhole to the east, and 5 minutes obvious draining heading north towards Tantalus Creek.



If you look at the intervals on GT, they may seem all over the board, but if you consider duration, you will see that the eruptions mostly begin under ten minutes from the end of the previous.  To “Retrieve” more than 20 eruptions including interval information, you can use the link below for the last 120 eruptions. You can also change the number at the end to access prior data.  (Thanks Jake and Will!)



http://www.geysertimes.org/getGeyserInfo.php?geyserID=77&n=120



The weather is fantastic thru this weekend, so I will be back again. The weather on closing weekend may not be as nice.  This remarkable behavior is so fun to watch, I only wish we knew when the change occurred during the time we were locked out.



See you on the boardwalk,

MA



M.A. Bellingham

mabdepot at msn.com
 		 	   		  
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