[Geysers] More Fun at Norris - Late May thru early June, 2014

[MA Bellingham]

PS  
As if you didn't have enough Norris reading material.... I forgot to mention that water has returned to the Incline Geyser area.  
MA

From: mabdepot at msn.com
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:12:41 -0600
Subject: [Geysers] More Fun at Norris - Late May thru early June, 2014




The following is my opinion based on my observations alone.  Any trends or patterns are solely based on
the time I was there or others observed times, as you know Norris can change!  This is a narrative report, you can check
Geyser Times for the actual numbers.  I
believe written descriptions “for the record” are as valuable as hard data. 


Since I wrote with my yearly spring report Norris had a fun spring disturbance.  If you check the YVO
monthly graph on any feature you will see a marked change in activity around
May 18.  Polly Panos had been reporting
good water at Steamboat prior to that date and you can see the change on many
other features as well. Look quick before May 18 scrolls off the monthly chart.



Through May 13th, Whirligig had been resting
since Feb 6, and Constant was virtually non-existent, so I was spending most of
my Norris time at Vixen.  To that point Vixen was
still behaving nicely with regular fairly short duration eruptions (with good water and runoff) ranging from
15-30 minutes apart (depending on the day), with longer majors lasting up to 3-15
minutes to spice up my time there.  


The YVO graph indicated that Whirligig erupted for the first
time since Feb. late on May 23, so I hot footed it to Norris on May 24, my first visit since May 13.  I wasn’t expecting disturbance effects, but
things had really changed since my last visit! That day I saw more consecutive
Constant eruptions than I had seen since opening, (possibly the most consecutive for a few years) and Graceful geyser had also
rejuvenated!  Water covering the whole
area at Incline had dropped out of sight, with only splashes coming through the
white deposits near the Incline vent area. 
The high pressure vents in the Feisty area were nearly silent with little water. Yellow
Funnel water had dropped to very low in the crater, still vigorously splashing.


Back at Vixen, things had changed!  Eruptions were similar in duration, anywhere
from 30-120 seconds, but suddenly majors would kick in with durations of 8-37
minutes!  There was the typical “Vixen
Drain” sound, but no period of quiet, the deep gurgling never stopped. If you
look at the times in GT the intervals may look all over the board, but eruptions
were within 4 minutes of the END of the previous, regardless of duration.  During this time you couldn’t stroll to Dog Leg or Yellow Funnel between eruptions without missing the next start. 
On May
27th, Vixen was covered from just before noon until evening, with
more than 50 eruptions observed.  During
that time, Dave Monteith, Kathy Friz, Clark Murray, Mike Frazier and myself
also witnessed the two “low water” major eruptions, as described by Dave Monteith,
with video, in a previous email.  That was
amazing!!!  


Back to Whirligig: 
During this time the period between eruptions was different from last
season, with strong bubbles and pushes up to 4-6” coming from the Rooster Tail
vent, and the little Edge Vent on the east side.  When I first arrived on a cold steamy morning
I was so excited to see “waves on Whirligig”, but later realized that was now
the norm.   I did start tracking the ebb
and flow of those to see if I could correlate them to eruption times, to
hopefully catch an eruption when I arrive late in the evening with no knowledge
of previous times.  By the time I thought
I was getting enough data, it changed again, of course.


Whirligig settled into a pattern of 6 hrs, then 5, then 4,
with some eruptions occurring at 3.5 hours. 
There have been 3 or more observed Whirligigs with Constant, which is a
real treat, and quashes the idea that one steals energy from the other, at
least during this disturbance.  This month
it took less time for the pool to refill than last season, which isn’t much
help when you arrive to see a full pool. 

 

Fast forward to June: 
Sometime between June 06 and June 08, Vixen intervals increased to around
8-10 minutes.  Another shift occurred
sometime between June 10 and June 12, with intervals again increasing to the
15ish minute duration.  These DO have a
period of quiet between eruptions, the continuing deep gurgling noises are no
more.  What is fascinating about the
latest activity is that there was only slight steam seen prior to an eruption,
no "first gurgle", “first blip”, “first slosh”, etc… Vixen has replaced Plume as the
SURPRISE geyser!  It just starts and
water is airborne, and startles even those of us expecting it!  That is very fun to see. 


To see Vixen information since just after Opening weekend
through all of these changes: 

http://www.geysertimes.org/getGeyserInfo.php?geyserID=77&n=250

For a visual representation of Whirligig since its
rejuvenation see: 

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/yellowstone_monitoring_35.html


The disturbance effects seem to be winding down.  Graceful has not been seen by me since June 8
(nor any other entries in GT), and I was watching for it June 12- 13.   I enjoyed a 3-Whirligig day on June 12, so I
was in the area and looking for Graceful several hours that day. 


My old friend Constant has returned to nearly its former self with beefy
tall eruptions nearly every cycle, including one with a 2nd burst at
the 2 minute mark!  I haven’t seen a 2nd
burst for 3 or more years.  I do hope
this is the new norm and it won’t change. I did have two pushes with no eruptions on either side of my last Whirligig. 


Whirligig’s side vents were not seen this week during the
quiet time between eruptions, and it has had a few minors which delays the next eruption.  Things are still changing, but it was a
FUN three weeks at Norris!  I’ll get down
there again this week, but probably won’t write again unless there is something
really unusual. Check GT if you are interested in following the Vixen and
Whirligig interval sagas!


See you on the boardwalk,  

MA

 

M.A. Bellingham

mabdepot at msn.com 		 	   		  

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