[Geysers] Dwarfs and names

[Powell, Richard L]

Contrary to the opinions of Lee Whittlsey, and others, to disregard naming or someway designating and documenting events at small features as too difficult and not worth wasting time
to do,  so serves no historical purpose. Why even mention the “Pathetic Little Hole”, possibly named by Dave Goldberg circa 2004, but subsequently published as “UNNG-GHG-12 (‘Improbable’) “
by Scott Bryan (2008, Geysers of Yellowstone, p.29 and 35-36). Numerous thermal features, mostly small intermittent geysers, some of which are in a small cluster or group have been studied
over time to warrant an informal name, a number, or a letter designation, e.g. UNNG- designations published by Scott Bryan 1991, 1995, and 2008 ( “unnamed” in the 1979 first edition),
or letter identifiers such as Terra Cotta A to E in Scott Bryan (2008, p. 58 and 63-64) and items A to O on a sketch map by Mike Keller (2008, GOSA Transaction, p.8).
   There is no hope of knowing or speculating the history of an insignificant thermal feature or a group of seemingly inconsistently located features without someone making an effort to
document them. Some “unofficial” system need be devised to locate and name or designate each feature to learn their significance, if any, over an unknown period of time. Lack of foresight
makes a poor excuse ( shoulda, woulda, coulda).
   In many instances, such as the Dwarf Group, a sketch map made by triangulation of each feature from two compass bearings from known and labeled points 50 to 100 feet apart along the
boardwalk might be sufficient, but should be dated periodically and “archived” with friends and perhaps the visitor center or published with an article in the SPUT. Digital images would be helpful.
I must stress that UTM coordinates with a hand held GPS unit are of no value even if someone were to depart the safety of the boardwalk into the apparently thin crusted area of the Dwarf Group.

Richard L. Powell




From: geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu [mailto:geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu] On Behalf Of TSBryan at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2014 10:33 AM
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Subject: [Geysers] Dwarfs and names

There are conventions that need to be satisfied in all this. Arguments against naming are NOT arguments against identifying in some recoverable but less formal fashion. Like it or not, there are rather strict constraints on the naming of things, at least in what can be called "official." [And yes, I have violated such constraints at times.]

This does not mean things can't be identified. Of course "we" want to be able to keep track of such things as the various "Dwarfs," but that can be done with some sort of informal designation based, perhaps on a relative position within the group ("Dwarf #2 SW") or geographic position (latitude-longitude, though I really questions such designations as that which appeared on Facebook a day or two ago where both lat and long were cited to 15 (fifteen!) decimal places).

For the record, the vent that is essentially always visible spouting toward the base of Arrowhead Spring is indeed "North Dwarf." "Red Dwarf" is/was more-or-less in the center of the cluster.

Scott Bryan

In a message dated 12/19/2014 4:58:41 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, eric at zimtek.com<mailto:eric at zimtek.com> writes:
The reason I started this thread was for exactly the reason Mara describes, plus having some way to start to collect data on it via Geyser Times of what we are observing on the webcam...many here keep saying vents open and close, but if we are not identifying (naming) those vents and track their eruptions, then we have no record of how long they have been active or an easy way to analyze if there are correlations in their behaviors or even if the vent actually does disappear!

On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 7:30 AM, Mara Reed <mara.reed at me.com<mailto:mara.reed at me.com>> wrote:
Despite the fact that those vents may be gone soon, would it not be prudent to have some consensus on unofficial names (at least for those vents known to do anything in recent years) so that one can say “such and such Dwarf erupted” in discussion of the area and people actually know which vent it is? If nothing else, there still seems to be confusion as to whether the perpetual spouter vent is called “Red” or “North.” Maybe it stops being perpetual in a few years, maybe it continues its current activity - nobody can know - but it sure makes it easier to discuss when we have a consistent name for it. With all due respect to Lee Whittlesey, I’d also wager it makes it easier to dig up information on a particular feature when the name used is consistent.
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