[Geysers] Geyser Hill / Upper Basin report, 20-22 Sep 13

[Gordon Bower]

Sunday morning, Bronze spring was hot and just below overflow; Silver Spring was boiling violently and throwing water well over its rim (but no overflow.)

Plume still has standing water visible in its crater, just barely in sight, and the bottom-most vent is still gurgling.

No false indicators were reported all 3 days I was in the park, or for a couple days prior, and several actual Beehives were reported, intervals as short as 14 hours. Of course I did not see any of them myself. Brown bacteria have not yet started to grow back in the area sterilized by the frequent false indicators.

Dome was reported active Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I didn't see it myself Friday afternoon, and saw 15-20 minute intervals Saturday evening, and much longer in Sunday - making me suspect this was two separate series a day and a half apart. Little Squirt was also reported early Sunday morning but had quit by the time I was up and about.

Depression was remarkably well-behaved. On Saturday I saw three eruptions from a distance, and a fourth was reported from the webcam. All three closed intervals around 3 1/2 hours. Aurum is still very much in summer mode despite a few cooler and wetter days this month.

Lion still has not decided what kind of series it wants to do. Friday evening it had a cycle with at least 6 majors, Sunday morning only 2. Little Cub was regular around 40-45 minutes, preceded by overflow/gentle sputtering. At North Goggle, orange bacteria have recolonized the runoff channel almost all the way to the base of the cone, suggesting no eruptions in several weeks (since the 21 July series, presumably.) (And I keep forgetting to ask... when did everyone start calling it "North Goggles" instead of "North Goggle?" I am not sure I can adapt, after so many years of the old name.)

The big news item on the Hill is Slot. I haven't seen it mentioned on the listserv since a Micah Kipple post on 01 July. Saturday afternoon, we saw big puffs of steam behind Sponge from the Lion area, like a Plate start, but then Plate never started. On walking up to Sponge to investigate, I found Slot erupting every 3 or 4 minutes. The best eruptions had bursts as high as the top of Sponge's cone. The weakest were just bubbles. There is a sizable area washed clear of gravel, about the same size as the clear area around Plate's vent. Slot's lower (right, sideways-splashing) vent was milky.

Plate itself, meanwhile, remained perfectly calm, water visible in the crater but below overflow, with no puddles in the runoff channel or other signs of recent activity.
I suspect that many of the recent reports of "Plate", especially the webcam reports, have actually been Slot's better eruptions. Especially when viewed from over by Lion or from the webcam tree, they look very similar, and it'd be easy to see a whole (up to 50s long) eruption of Slot and think it was the last minute of Plate.

Runoff from the Pump area is draining into Boardwalk. We watched a cute little crack in the sinter, in the middle of this runoff channel, right beside the trail, that appeared to bubble vigorously at the time of Slot's eruptions and calm down between them. The old hole near the trail, at the Giantess end of the Sponge "wide spot", is acting as a cool intermittent spring, and sending additional water toward Boardwalk. 

***

Elsewhere in the Upper Basin: Solitary is doing very well, big colorful surges well over your head about every 3rd eruption. Sawmill Group was solidly in Sawmill mode. Tilt was flooded and quiet every time I walked past. Grand was extremely regular around 7 hours. The Saturday evening moonlit Grand had an interesting start: at only 14 minutes in, just as the runoff was starting to sound good from the benches, Turban started suddenly with a distinct "pop". Grand followed just over a minute later. I don't have details on the preceding Turbans. (I've only seen this once before -- last November on closing weekend, I had a Turban interval of 13m47s, same explosive start, followed by Grand a minute and a half in. That time, the previous "normal" Turban cycles were 18 minutes.)

Farther downbasin, I have no news beyond what has already been reported by others on Facebook and the listserv: Daisy is very frequent around 2h10m, occasional Oblongs are being seen, I missed a Fan and Mortar while at Fountain.