[Geysers] Brief Geyser Report

[Lynn Stephens]

Gemini greeted me with a new eruptive behavior, at least for this season, this morning.  I arrived at the White Dome Complex  early enough this morning to watch Pebble refill, but not early enough to see the early morning series.  Pebble went into overflow down the hill toward Cave about 0945.  At 0904 Gemini erupted, but Pebble didn't drain.  Then Gemini filled, sending a little water out into the sinter bowl, and drained three times over the course of the next 25 minutes.  After the third Gemini drain, Pebble started dropping at the "normal" drop rate it often shows prior to the start of a Gemini series.  Gemini erupted at 0937 and was followed by two additional eruptions.
 
Because Pebble's water level did not respond to the first Gemini eruption, I decided to label the 0904 an initial eruption of a series of one.  When Pebble's water level responded to the Gemini eruption at 0937 I also labeled this the initial eruption of a series of three eruptions.  This activity has been seen in other years where Gemini has a series of one, a 35 minute break, then another eruption.  I don't remember past activity where the eruption after the 35 minute break turned into a series, but my memory probably isn't very trustworthy in this case.
 
So Gemini sucked me into spending the entire day, with the exception of one 1 1/2 hour break in the shade at Pink Cone, watching the White Dome Complex.  Gemini had two additional series of eruptions while I was there--an initial at 1346 (4 eruptions in the series) and another initial at 1704 (total of 5 eruptions in the series).
 
I was told that Gemini was no longer having 10-15 minute fill/drain cycles where water was pushed out oPicf the vent into the sinter bowl throughout the entire quiet phase of Gemini's cycle.  During the quiet phase preceding the initial at 1346, Gemini did take a break from the fill/bubble/push water into the sinter bowl/drain activity for 40 minutes.  During this 40 minute period the water level did periodically rise in the vent but did not push water out of the vent.  I did not watch the entire quiet phase leading up to the next initial at 1704.
 
"Rejuvenated's" intervals varied from just under 30 minutes to over 40 minutes.  I didn't see any correlation between duration and subsequent interval today, the way other people said they had the past few days.
 
Weather--warm, warm, too warm.  I know it's cooler here than it is at home, but at home I can stay in my air conditioned house.
 
New flowers in bloom--harebells; wild roses near Hot Lake.
 
Wildlife--bison herd near Nez Perce Creek causing traffic jams at both 5:30 am and 6:30 pm.
 
Picture of the day--the woman who went up to the base of White Dome's cone so she could apparently take a close-up picture of the sinter coating the cone?  She certainly was too close to get a picture of the feature itself and she wasn't taking a selfie of herself at the base of the cone.
 
Overheard comment of the day:  The leader of a bicycle tour pointing to Cave Spring--"That's a fumarole.  See the steam coming off of it."
 
Finally there was the wrong way driver who came speeding toward White Dome.  When he realized I wasn't going to move out of the middle of the road, he slowed, shrugged and gave me a thumbs up before I even had a chance to get close to him to give him the educational spiel, and turned around.  I didn't have to tell him or point that he was going the wrong way--it was clearly obvious to me and a couple other visitors he knew exactly what he was doing.
 
Lynn Stephens
 		 	   		  
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