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

[Andiy Wagner]

I was there on the 22nd watching the North Goggle. It had some hot surges,
lowering and rising of the water, but no eruptions. We were waiting to see
if Lion would go while waiting for Grand. Grand gave a great display and
was the first time my roommate had seen a double burst.
Your description of the "pop" is interesting to me. My aunt used to say she
loved walking the hill and basin with people who were blind or at least
legally so because they could hear the steam bubbles collapsing as
"popping" noises. They would often ask what she was looking for when a
geyser like Grand was about to go. She realized after a conversation that
they could hear much better and were far better estimators even if they had
never been their in their lives before. After the second person she took
around she began to ask them what they could hear, which surprised many of
them since she was the park ranger, but as she pointed out, they do not
know everything and certainly not where a geyser will trigger. Makes me
wonder on still nights of we can hear it too?
Great info thanks so much. I love reading these.
I got to see the sow and triplets twice in Lamar valley. That made my
weekend since that was four of the five grizz in a day.
:)
Andiy
PS found the other post on Pink Cone and Great Fountain very interesting as
well. Thank you again


On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 2:39 PM, Gordon Bower <taigabridge at hotmail.com>wrote:

> 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.
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> 
>
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