Geyser Notes

Like today (see previous posting.)

There was a small shower between the time I went to sleep and midnight, when I got up. Just enough to wet things down, and make sure they stayed wet all night. When I got out to Grand, it was still above freezing, and dead calm. Usually there's a slight, imperceptible movement of air down-valley, most noticible by the way all the steam clouds tilt slightly in that direction. Tonight, it was straight up. Comet and the sputs of the Daisy group were putting a steamcloud hundreds of feet in the air.

At Grand, this presents a problem. The runoff is all between you and the geysers, and so end up blocking your view. Being back-lit by the moon would make things visible, but that not an option (at least a legal one).. As seen from the northern end of the line of benches, I saw a solid wall of steam that was sharply deliniiated by Vent, extending all the way to the right along the runoff channel. All other views were worse. Oh, well.

Got back out into the basin around 05:30, light enough that it was obvious that today was, at least in terms of weather, going to be the best day of my visit. Out at Giant, though, the platform was dead. An hour sitting resulting in seeing nothing, and it was on to Grand.

I got there on what appeared to be a delay type overflow, and even Percolator quiet, so I was expecting a bit of a wait. Grand had other ideas, and instead erupted over a minute after Turban started. And the second burst missed being a "long" by 8 seconds.

After that, the choices were between the Monkey Cage at Giant or Daisy. So I got to see Splendid's "Side Boiler" for the first time. It was active most of the time during my 20 minute wait, and even started up about 8 minutes after Daisy, along with some weak side vent activity.

Now there was no choice, it was off to Giant. I plopped down back about halfway between the Indicator Pool and the junction to the platform, with a decent view of Mastiff and co., and decided it was time for breakfast (Cheerios mixed with left over trail mix). I noticed no activity from Bijou. Now I wasn't there that long, and it may have already gone into the shutdown, but the lack of activity wasn't attracting any notice. No sooner than I started to feed than I heard comments from the Cage about how it looked like Mastiff was rising.

I stood up, and it was. (Here I've got a minor quibble: I had to give the announcement about rising Mastiff because despite there being over a dozen people in the Cage, all with a better view, no one else did. Every second counts.)

At that point, the hot period preceded fairly normally for the first four or five minutes, giving me plenty of time to put away the food, rearrange the pack and dig out items I expected to need, like the umbrella. But by then, one thing was obvious: Mastiff was not going to wimp out after a couple of small boils. While it stopped a few times, every time it came back stronger.

Around the 9 minute mark, Mastiff was in eruption on its own, with continuous water from both vents well above the cone of Giant. Giant, however, seemed like it didn't want to start, with splashes not much bigger than those I saw last week 24 hours before it finally erupted. Mastiff continued, with Catfish joining in. Somewhere in that direction one of the vents was jetting loud steam, but I couldn't tell which. Finally, after 11m20s, Giant had a splash big enough to set it off.

I'd stationed myself at the front right corner, as close as you can get. (If no one else is gonna take that spot, I sure will.) The wind was almost perpendicular to my line of sight, but still expected that I might need the umbrella. Even though for a few moments, the tip of the water column was directly at my zenith, and I could see the water slowly droping straight for me, the wind eventually moved the water just a few feet over. Tall?yes. How tall? No idea.

Only one marker sign moved, the "Giant" one, and even it moved only a few feet and landed upright. The wind was just enough to push the steam away, so we never didn't have a bad view of Giant once it started. I wanted to take some pictures, but my ancient camera decided that it was time to go from yesterday's "full charge" to "empty".

Well into the eruption one of the NPS Naturalists announced that there was a peregrine falcon down toward Morning Glory. Someone needs to take her aside and get her priorities straight. Or at least to recognize the priorities of many of those people milling about.

Now that I've had my platform start for this trip, I can try other places, if the mood suits. I still want to try to measure the height of the first minute's water, and wouldn't mind seeing a start from Grand.

I expect the rest of the day to be pretty dull, so don't expect more than the briefest of a posting tomorrow

Other Geyser Times

• Rift 01:17
• Giant hot period 09:28 d=11m20s, eruption

Posted by HKoenig at 12:14 PM | Permalink

First, a slight change of format. Up until now, I've been trying to make these postings "up-to-date",. But that makes it hard sometimes to keep straight what happened on what date. So from now on, and definitely until the posting situation gets a bit easier, I'll have a single day (or less) per report. Of course, should something interesting happen, like an eruption of Giant or an eight Burst Grand or Economic activity, it'll add an extra posting. The geyser log times will be up to date, of course.

So that makes this report pretty short. With Grotto in a marathon, the rest of my day was spent on errands which I'd expect to do the day before. The weather was cool and partly cloudy with a sprinkle or two. Radio chatter was down, too, it seemed. As of 19:00, Grotto was still active. It was my hope that come the mid-night Grand, it'd still be going, but stop while I'm out there.

I've found that my recent changes to entering geyser times wasn't working properly with Grand burst info and Castle minors. I think I've fixed that. If you see any other problems, let me know. Even though it might take a day or two to fix it.

Posted by HKoenig at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Yesterday afternoon was another Rift delayed Grand interval in cold and wind. At least the last snow shower was a few hours earlier while waiting for Giant.

Note how yesterday's Giant hot period's alternated durations between long and medium.

Overnight was clear and calm and cold. The moon set just as the east was starting to show some light, so it never got totally dark. The Grand eruption was with the moon only a few degrees above the horizon, and a moonbow/fogbow in the steam over the main runoff channel. Like yesterday, the eruption appears to have been delayed by Rift, or perhaps more accurately, West Triplet. And I've never heard of a Rift interval of less than 10 hours before.

This morning there was only a single hot period, at 05:56, lasting 4m46s, as it appears that Grotto is having another marathon (starting around 02:57). As of the mid-day Grand eruption, it's still erupting.

Other Geyser Times

• Penta 19:07ie, steam phase
• Grotto Ftn 19:02
• Giant hot periods
  • 11:18 d=8m25s
  • 14:39 d=3m36s
  • 16:36 d=6m06s
  • 17:59 d=3m15s
  • 19:13 d=6m45s
  • 21:02 d=2m20s
• Rift 16:21 d=43m05s

• Grotto 02:57
• Giant hot period
  • 05:56 d=4m46s
• Rift 01:59 d=38m39s
• Uncertain 08:49

And nothing to do with geysers

Yesterday afternoon when I left my cabin to head out into the basin, I heard a noise to the left. Down the slope, about 20ft away, was a bison grazing away on the hillside.

While waiting at Grand, I thought I saw motion on the top of the hill. It turned out to be a coyote who ducked back into the trees.

Posted by HKoenig at 12:04 PM | Permalink

Here are tips based on my observations on how these have been used the last week or so:

• Talk slowly and distinctly. Speak up, because my volume control only goes up to 10.
• Don't press the "Send" button and immediately start talking. Receivers can take a second or two to recognize your carrier signal, and start playing what you are saying.
• Repeat any times, or even spell out the digits the second time.
• Give people time to write down the first time before you announce the second.
• Figure out what you are going to say before transmitting. Get to the point. Don't spend the first 15 seconds doing your William Buckley impression
• To get the maximum range, hold so that the antenna is vertical. (Don't nod down to talk into a radio held at an angle.)
• Put your radio where you won't keep hitting the [expletive deleted] "Call Button". You know, the one that makes a chirping sound in every radio at Grand or Giant. Even, better see if the instruction manual says you can disable it completely. Don't make me come find you...
• If people keep asking you to repeat, or to have your reports relayed, that is a good sign that you're doing something wrong, or that your radio isn't working right.
• If someone is calling out Giant hot period information, your Plume or Atomizer time can wait.
• And if someone does call out one of those times during a hot period, they've already made their decision on where they'd rather be, so don't respond by telling them to get to Giant.
• Why is it that people who, in person can't shut up, on the radios think that saying nothing during a Giant hot period is being descriptive?

Actually, the general behavior is a lot better than my last times here, without all the yakking between the same two or three people asking their friends to "switch to five." If anything, the yakking there is comes from the NPS, not gazers.

Posted by HKoenig at 11:57 AM | Permalink

For the wait for yesterday (28 May) evening's eruption of Grand, the sky was dark and overcast to the west, while clear to the east. The wind was still as blustery and annoying as earlier in the day. As I waited, the gray got darker, and eventually, it started to snow wet, fat flakes. But at the same time, it began to lighten to the west, so that the disk of the sun could be made out. The shower was colored pink by this low lighting. By the time the shower ended, the sun would have been visible if it hadn't just set. That's when Grand erupted. It would have been a very pretty eruption if it hadn't been so steamy and windy.

The overnight Grand was in completely different circumstances. There was still some clouds obscuring a setting moon, but it was dead calm. The boardwalks were still covered with ice from the previous evening's snow. The eruption itself was unremarkable except for the fact that Percolator was dead and there were two bursts.

On to Giant afterwards, where it was obvious from the platform that there hadn't been a hot period in a few hours. Also, it appeared that Grotto was once again going into a marathon eruption. The platform also reflected this, as Bijou was chaotic in its behavior, and all the features seemed weak.

I placed my thermometer outside the cabin when I came back in at 06:15, and just a few minutes later, it read 29°F. Which means it was much colder out in the basin itself.

Of course, the problem with making plans based on what you think the geysers are going to do is that the geysers might have other plans. When I got out for the late morning Grand eruption, it was obvious that Grotto had quit. So no marathon, and it appears I'm going to have to drop some of the errands I'd planned for today.

So just as I'm about to post the above, the call goes out that "there's water rising in Mastiff". So at 11:18 we get an 8m25s hot period, and I get to add some exercise I hadn't intended.

Other Geyser Times

• Grotto Fountain 18:57 w/o Grotto
• Rift 21:07ns

• Penta 06:31ie, steam phase

Posted by HKoenig at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Catfish Geyser and erosion

Over by Catfish, the whole front of the base of its cone also shows fresh, laminated sinter which, I would assume, is being exposed and undermined by the action of Mastiff during both eruptions and hot periods.

If this is what frequent activity over a few years time can do, the the question, it seems to me, becomes, how long until a major change in one of these features occurs because of this erosion. One of the sput vents could have it's rim dropped by several centimeters. The whole southwest side of Catfish could be opened up and exposed, turning it into another breached cone just like Giant.

Another possibility is that the deposits within the actual vent of Catfish do not have the horizontal laminations characteristic of all the erosion going on, and thus will be more resistant to the attack on it.

Perhaps erosion plays a larger part in the formation of cones than is realized. A feature builds up a modest raised vent in the middle of a larger, flat platform. Then another feature erodes away those horizontal platform deposits, leaving the vent's vertical deposits intact. The second feature subsides, allowing the first feature to continue to build deposits on its cone, but now outside over the newly exposed platform. Eventually, it might be difficult to determine that the platform was ever much higher, and the cone not as tall.

Turtle Geyser cone

Posted by HKoenig at 11:53 AM | Permalink

The Crater of Extinct
Splendid Geyser

Daisy Geyser

Later Sunday evening, Grand finally made up for all the nice short intervals it's had by tossing in a long interval, which these days is a measly 8h13m. (Ahh, for the good ol' days when a "long" was over 16 hours, and a short just 10.) I never really had a delay overflow, just alternated good looking overflows with ones that were obviously not going to result in an eruption. At the same time, the weather deterorated. It got cloudy and gray, and eventually we started getting sprinkles. FInally, at 20:03, it had what was a "Classic Two Turban Delay" — heavy overflow with waves, a drop as Turban starts and a short eruption of Turban (2m59s). That was followed by a short Turban interval (17m08s)and finally on the second Turban, the eruption. The eruption itself presented a nice contrast between the white watercolumn from Grand with the gray clouds as a backdrop.

This Monay morning was mixed. The weather was clear and could have been warm if the wind wasn't gusting up to about 40mph, or so it seemed. Grotto's marathon ended somewhere around 03:00-04:00 (best guess), and Grand went at 03:10, according to the monitor. So instead of spreading things about, Grand decided that it was time to experience a Rift delay. This resulted in everything interesting happening in a little over a half-hour span. First, this time someone saw the Indicator in eruption, which resulted in a stampede to the south. They returned in time for Grand to finally erupt. While it was a two burst eruption, it took Grand a full minute after the start of Turban to begin, and the total duration was only 9m29s, yet Vent and Turban quit afterwards

Within ten minutes of the end of Grand's eruption, Giant had its post-marathon hot period. The hot period was fairly strong, with Mastiff boiling mostly to one or two feet, with a max around four,but for almost the entire duration.It lasted 9m52s, then was followed by about 3m30s of a Feather restart but with weak Giant surging.

Other Geyser Times

• Rift 10:09, d≈50m

And nothing to do with geysers

On my way to Grand last night, I saw a duck floating on the Firehole River, then shooting the rapids below the Sawmill bridge and drifting off downstream.

Posted by HKoenig at 03:58 PM | Permalink

One of the reasons I like the early morning is because its a time unlike the rest of the day. Unlike early evening, road and people noise is non-existent. (People who like noisy machinery never seen to be early risers for some reason...) Also, it's the one time of day when the wind is truly calm. Usually on nice days, as the air rapidly warms, the winds start around 09:00 or so.

I like seeing the steam from an eruption of Grotto climbing hundreds of feet into the air, like something important is erupting. But even large pools can have their subtleties. This morning, for example, as Grand was having the heavy overflow before its eruption, there was absolutely no wind. It was so calm that the convection from Grand's pool's steam column was actually creating its own micro-wind, drawing in the steam coming from the runoff channels. These plumes weren't vertical, but all tilted toward Grand. Then a ever so slight breeze came up, and destroyed the effect.

Grand itself had four eruptions yesterday, and five in about a 28 hour period. For a day now, I've arrived at Grand and it will erupt on one of the next two Turban eruptions. I think several of these have been delay-type starts, but can't be sure because it's usually too dark (or steamy) to see clearly, and haven't seen a full Turban interval on those that I suspect.

Yesterday, coming out of a Grotto marathon, it took Giant about 13 hours to finally have a hot period for the crowd who spent a day there. At 19:58, it lasted 5m28s. There was another, weaker one at 21:50. By this morning, Grotto was back into what appears to be another marathon, with Giant's platform dead around 06:00. When this marathon ends, that's when the fun will begin.

Because of the marathon, it also appears to be no reason be hanging around down there, as I'm hearing more Geyser Hill radio reports than yesterday.

Saw an eruption of Daisy up close, started as I arrived, so I didn't see the preliminaries. But the sputs between Splendid and Comet looked little changed from what I remember seeing in years past. But Splendid was dead. It did nothing during Daisy's eruption, other than draining. Even after the eruption ended, nothing happened. There's only a narrow, barely wet algae filled runoff channel off to the north, and it appears that even that is due to Daisy's runoff.

Other Geyser Times

• Uncertain 05:40
• Grotto 05:30ie (marathon, still ie @14:00)

And nothing to do with geysers

From the NPS radios, a Sunday morning report of "two people skateboarding down from Craig Pass."

Why do new hiking boots always come with laces that refuse to hold a knot?

Somebody locked their doglet inside the car at the Lower Ham's. You could still hear the ankle-biter yelping down at Crested Pool.

At 10:30, as I'm headed down-basin, there's a bison in the Lodge cabin area blocking my way.

Posted by HKoenig at 02:27 PM | Permalink

One of the things I like about a Grand start on a delayed Turban interval is the explosive start. For the last 10 minutes or so all there is to see is a full, heavily overflowing pool that fluctuates slightly. Then suddenly, with only a couple of large pulsations, Grand suddenly rockets up to 10 meters high. It's as if Grand has been fighting for all that time to erupt, and had finally figured out how to unleash itself, and is going to make sure it keeps erupting.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to guarantee against a one burst eruption.

(Years ago Grand would have "boops", where it would have several boils to 3 or 4 meters, as if the eruption was starting, only to suddenly subside. It was amusing to see people who knew enough to be dangerous suddenly taken aback when the pools dropped instead of erupted.)

For the last few days, in what had to have been not the greatest of conditions, we kept getting eruption times on every feature on Geyser Hill (especially Plume) from dawn until dusk. Or so it seemed. So today, it what started out as a beautiful day, a day in which we've yet to have any precipitation from the thunderclouds, and on a day when there's a large influx of observers for the Memorial Day weekend, Beehive erupts in the middle of the afternoon. No one saw the Indicator, the only radio call was at least two minutes into the eruption. Webcam observers probably got a better start time.

And I saw my first mosquito today, a sure sign that Spring really has started.

Other geysers:

• Rift 11:03
• Fountain 12:23
• Great Fountain 13:50

Posted by HKoenig at 05:48 PM | Permalink

I've made a change to the GeyserLog page, so that now at the top will be displayed a list of "Today's Activity", with the latest eruption at the top. (Actually, it's the last 36 hours, so it'll usually show yesterday evening's eruptions, too.

Now that I've figured out that I can make such changes on the fly, I'll probably be making other little improvments or modifications.

Posted by HKoenig at 12:59 PM | Permalink

As yesterday afternoon progressed, the temperature rose,the sky cleared and the wind died down (or at least wasn't as obnoxious) so that by the evening One-Burst Grand, the weather cold almost qualify as nice. Otherwise a dull, uneventful afternoon, and one to use to settle into a routine.

Today has been nice. Still cool, and with the midday breeze, but clear and in the sunshine, a jacket isn't really needed. Grand had, if the electronic monitor is to be believed, a little over 6 hour interval this morning. Castle must've had a minor overnight, too.

In any case, it was a nice day to stick around and watch a full West Triplet (and Rift start at 11:03). I see from the weather forecast that it'll turn wet again just as it's time to start spending time at Giant.

In other notes, when zips by you on a bike and says that dogs aren't permitted in thermal areas, don't whine back, "well, I didn't see a sign". You are just admitting that you know that you aren't supposed to dragging your little darling out there, but also didn't think anyone would care. Just don't say anything would be better thing to do.

Posted by HKoenig at 12:27 PM | Permalink

Tilt does erupt! On my way out to Grand last evening, once again while tying up my bike, I saw a geyser erupt. This time, at least, it wasn't Grand.

The activity I saw lasted about a minute from when I first noticed it. It was throwing jets of water away from the boardwalk about one meter high from the northern opening in the vent. Nothing impressive, but nice to know it's not dead. (I should probably write up a few Tilt related memories for posting later this summer.

Otherwise another long one burst Grand (d=11m31s). At least it went early, so I didn't have to wait in the cold, windy and dark. Just the cold and windy.

Today Grand decided to have a longer interval for no apparent reason, and Rift had a duration which for me seemed a more normal length. Midway through that eruption, West Triplet decided to throw in one of its empty vent steam minors.

Sawmill Group had a deep drain with a couple of Sawmill restarts, followed by an eruption of Uncertain.

Other Geysers:

• Rift 10:47 d=1h19m
• Uncertain 10:57

Posted by HKoenig at 02:29 PM | Permalink

After the excitement of the morning, time to catch up on a variety of things that have been put off due to a combination of Giant, weather and lack of transport. All that done, it was time to head back out to Grand. The weather had changed back to windy, cool, and overcast with occasional snow showers.

Start of Rift Geyser

On 21 May, one lasted ≈34m. Today the eruption at 13:01 lasted only 28m21s. It was the second of the day, the first being early in the morning around 01:15. And neither eruption seems to have had any detrimental effect on Rift.

Meanwhile Grand continues to annoy. At least the afternoon's one burst eruption lasted 11m20s, and was followed by a Vent & Turban pause of 19m14s.

Posted by HKoenig at 04:03 PM | Permalink

Former OF Visitor Center Front Desk

Former OF Visitor Center

Posted by HKoenig at 03:55 PM | Permalink

Graham Meech stayed out all night as Giant continued to have hourly hot periods during the night, none of them as strong as the one that occurred the previous night while I was making these postings.

Giant Geyser

Giant Geyser

Giant Geyser and Grand Geyser

Other geysers of interest:

• Oblong 05:27 ie
• Daisy 05:07
• Riverside 01:44, 08:23ie
• Grotto 03:53

Posted by HKoenig at 09:38 AM | Permalink

This will be pretty short, since I spent the day between Giant and Grand. At least the latter was fairly cooperative. The weather was cool (cold when breezy) but no rain or snow.

Giant hot periiods:

• 06:28 d=4m40s
• 07:27 d=1m40s
• 08:57 d=4m00s
• 09:57 d=2m10s
• 12:01 d=1m39s
• 13:00 bathtub
• 14:16 d=6m37s
• 16:28 d=1m30s
• 17:37 d≈3m20s
• 18:35 d=2m10s
• 19:35 d=1m42s
• 20:39 d≈5m

Other geysers:

• Grotto Ftn 09:07, 13:49
• Grotto 09:12, 13:54
• Penta 13:17ie
• Grand 09:18 T2C, 17:21 T3Q
• Oblong 04:31, 07:33, 12:46, 15:55ns
• Riverside 05:46, 12:28, 19:06
• Daisy 06:04, 09:39, 12:53, 15:57, 18:51

Posted by HKoenig at 08:20 PM | Permalink

In the Grand Group it was a cold, miserable day. By afternoon,m temperature was just above freezing, so the windswept snow melted where it landed. When I arrived, Rift had just started, and we were in a delay overflow. With a short Rift duration, I was hoping for a short delay. No such luck. The second Turban was a short but strong eruption, followed by a 16m11s interval. So no surprise the total delay was D9.

Following a short Grotto marathon overnight, there was a Giant hot period at 14:33, d≈5m. A second hot period occurred 16 17:14, slighly longer d≈6m, and then at 19:29, d=5m50s. Grotto still had not restarted as of the last hot period (at least I never heard a report of that.).

• West Triplet 12:25
• Rift 12:57 d≈34m
• Grand 16:07 T1C
• Daisy 12:31, 15:50
• Oblong 14:40, 18:54
• Riverside 16:17
• Castle 18:51

Posted by HKoenig at 07:43 PM | Permalink

Having been gone a long time, some of the things I'm noticing are probably well known and obvious to those who' ve been here more recently. But I'm still going to comment on them.

Tilt Geyser is completely different. The original Tilt, which had functioned as a noisy steamvent in the 1980s and 1990s, has been completely filled in by algae and debris carried along by Crested's runoff channel. In the several minutes that I stood there, I noticed that the blowout vents were fluctuating between overflow and down about 1.5cm. The changes in level was also accompanied by ripples and palpitations. That, I assume, is the sum total of Tilt's present activity, which I guess would still qualify it as an intermittent spring.

The Sawmill Group appeared almost as I remembered it, with one minor and one major exception. Tardy has developed a new runoff channel which heads northeast and under the boardwalk, which would have been useful when I wanted to put electronic monitors around the group.

The big exception was the new hole (or holes) that have developed beside or even under the bend of the boardwalk at Scalloped Spring. Thanks to the snow showers, it was easy to see the long stretch of warm walkway. The between the walkway and the old collapse feature actually had water sloshing around about a half meter down. I'm surprised the NPS hasn't panicked and closed the trail. If the do, let them wait until July.

Posted by HKoenig at 10:55 AM | Permalink

So when I arrived yesterday, I checked in moments before Old Faithful erupted. No one at the desk, so I breezed right through to my cabin. By the time I'd unpacked and run most of my errands, I decided I could spend a little time in the Lower Ham's parking lot. As I turned the corner from the main road to the parking lot, there was another Faithful eruption just starting. I just find the timing interesting. (Not that I'm superstitious.)

Because I spoke too soon in the last posting. It seems at that point, or on the drive between there and my cabin, the power steering fluid reservoir on my truck developed a leak, with fluid dropping onto the alternator and spraying all over the engine compartment. So for the next few hours, all I could really do is sop up the leak as the fluid drained, and wait for the repair shop at the Upper Gas station to open on Friday.

And it's also somehow appropriate that the first eruption that I see from the start would be Grand as I'm tying up my bicycle at the Castle bikerack. A one burst in a snow shower.

Posted by HKoenig at 10:53 AM | Permalink

So I completed my migration back to the Park.

Migration involves travel, but is not the same as "traveling". Mere travel is just going from one place to another. Migration is repeated traveling over the same path to the same destination and back to the starting point. Unlike ordinary travel, a migration also includes the expectation of the same events with the same outcome. You aren't inclined to take a side trip on a whim while migrating, because that's will only delay your arrival at your destination. If you need a road atlas, it's not a migration.

A migration is also infrequent. Do it often enough, and it qualifies as a "commute".

So how did my migration go?

Except for the frequent rain showers (which turned to snow at the Old Faithful area) and the strong headwinds in the upper Madison Valley, it was the most uneventful trip that I can remember. The time flew by, and absolutely nothing went wrong. Even after all these years, very little seems to have changed along the route, other than Missoula has continued to bloat out to the northwest.

Now it's time unpack and get everything set up and to rest up for a full day of geyser activity tomorrow.

Posted by HKoenig at 05:06 PM | Permalink

My stay won't be for a full summer season, but during the time that I am there, I intend to post here comments and observations on a regular basis, as well as keep up to date a list of eruption times for a number of geysers whose activity interests me. (If you want to see more info on other features, I'm always open to suggestions or help...)

When things seem a bit slow, I'll probably resurrect some postings from that earlier attempt at a weblog in which the subject was the Good Ol' Days. And maybe add some new details now that the statute of limitation for those involved has expired.

The geyser eruption log and display are an experiment. I'll be violating several major Info Tech (IT) rules of thumb by going live with a new, relatively untested system without having access to the entire system to make changes. That's because my webserver and database will be located at home, hundreds of miles to the west. So if it doesn't work, or behaves strangely, it can't be fixed until I'm back home. And unless others are willing to help out, I won't be able to continue it when I return home.

I've also got another weblog that may be of interest, and even obliquely related to the future of this one. When Mt.St.Helens reactivated in the fall of 2004, I quickly generated list of local news-sites which I checked on a regular and frequent basis for news about the eruption. I thought to myself that it would be nice if someone were providing a central location for a summary and links, so I wouldn't have to wade through the same articles, and looked around for such a site. Not finding any, it occurred to me that I was in a position to provide that site, so that's what I did.

I've kept that weblog running now for two and a half years. During that time the eruption has turned into an extrusion, with very little exciting happening. These days, that weblog usually contains little more than a reposting of the daily USGS report and links to the latest USGS photos. But, I keep telling myself, should it ever become exciting again, there will at least be available the news aggregation site I wanted back then.

If you like the information you see here, or you would like to see it continue even after I've returned back to more mundane activities, the best way to show that support is to hit the contribute buttons to the left, or buy from the ads. Keeping a webserver up and running properly doesn't just happen, and definitely does not happen for free.

Posted by HKoenig at 10:45 AM | Permalink