[Geysers] Whirligig Geyser activity, pre and post shutdown

[MA Bellingham]

Greetings again Gazers, 



This summer it was harder to get a grip on Whirligig (obviously
one of my faves!) since I was not able to get to Norris with great regularity
until late August, and most of the usual suspects who also monitor it and
contribute data were enjoying multiple Morning eruptions (or not).  I suspected that the spikes on the YVO
Constant monitor were Whirligig eruptions, but that took several visits in September
to confirm.  Thanks to the great Norris staff
for not only noting seen eruption times, but times it was seen drained or
refilling in their VC logbook. I have added all the logbook notations to GT. 


I was lucky to see one from the bench and 1
from the path during September.  As September came to a close the YVO graph indicated it was
slowing down to about one eruption every 3 days.  


As with Vixen, after the gates opened after the shutdown, I
found Whirligig’s activity had changed. After the YVO radio signal was repaired, it shows that Whirligig was/is erupting 5-6 times daily. 
 The YVO graph shows this frequent
activity started around October 4 or 5 during the shutdown.  (I suspect the same date for the change at Vixen.)  Fortunately the logger was still gathering
data even though it was not transmitting. 



The more frequent activity in October was great news and I have
been able to catch one per visit, or two on a great day!  With shorter daylight hours, that has been great!  Time to overflow from an eruption is about 90
minutes, so if I arrived to a refilling pool I was able to wait for overflow,
then go to Vixen or elsewhere and return later. I had one closed interval of 3h
44m. 


Now the plot thickens with observed minors!  I have seen these over the past few summers
and found that they might be followed by a quick refill and an eruption about an
hour later.  Unfortunately this changed
my ability to gauge when the previous eruption occurred, and I won’t enter any presumed
eruption times based on first overflow, (marked as ?),  in GT.  I
will stand by those times prior to the disturbance/change in activity; I heard
of no minors prior to October.  Yesterday
there were two minors prior to the afternoon eruption. 


I hope this information helps those who also enjoy this fun
geyser and are coming for closing weekend. I’ll say goodbye to all of southern Yellowstone and all geyser basins this weekend, but will be around Norris mornings and late afternoons on my
way to and fro. After the time change to Standard time, darkness will fall early on our last day as we say goodbye to the interior until April. 



See you on the boardwalk,

MA


M.A. Bellingham

mabdepot at msn.com

 		 	   		  
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