Geyser Notes

Coming back from downbasin, I always look over on Geyser Hill as I bike up that well-despised hill the Inn sits on. It's mostly to check for a Beehive Indicator, but occasionally I do get to see something else of interest. This morning, after Grand, I noticed that Giantess was putting up a strong, well defined steam cloud. Now it was around 08:45, which is a bit late for any dry ice effects, but the last few days we've been having calm mornings, and those are excellent conditions for Giantess to have its big boils. Not making any predictions, but just noting that this is the first time that I've seen anything at all from that pool.

The second burst of the mid-day Grand eruption was had a long second burst that featured lots of Big Sawmill action. During the last half minute, Vent was reduced to a steam jet with little to no water visible. The post-eruption pause, at over 23 minutes, was unusually long, too.

I was a bit surprised that for a Grand eruption that would take place just after sunset with a full moon in warm conditions, there were just a few tourists out beside me. No gazers or even geyser groupies. I remember years past where there would have been a dozen or so of us out there. Then again, most of those people have gone, been driven away, or gotten older. But still, you'd think that some of the newer gazers would take advantage of such opportunities.

Posted by HKoenig at 10:20 AM | Permalink

Thanks to Grand once again deciding to have a long interval when it could instead have erupted by moonlight, I got to see that Grotto was still in its marathon eruption when I left at 04:30. Which, it turns out, was just about the time it shut down. Grotto was off and dead by 05:20. So once again, the Bijou Monkey Cage would be filling mid-morning and overflowing by noon. Grand had a consecutive long interval, and despite the breeze, it was a hot wait there.

Had already decided earlier in the week that if a Giant hot period started while I was at Grand, I was not going to race down to the Cage with the rest of the herd, but stay there and, should it actually erupt, try and get some photos, and get to see what it looks like from there. Today I got my chance. Unfortunately, some of the pictures were blurred because I was in such a hurry and the camera is so slow to respond. As with last week, the time between the start of Mastiff's surging turning into actual jetting until the start of Giant seemed to last forever, despite it being just a bit under two minutes.

I do sort of wish that the circumstances of the two eruptions, this one and last week's, were reversed, as I'd really have liked to have heard just how high this one was. It was definitely larger that earlier, but by how much? (Maybe someday, instead of immediately yakking into their cell phones from within the Monkey Cage every time, some people can put the effort into seeing and recording eruptions from other locations like I've tried to do. And I do resent, just a bit, how a number of geyser groupies just assumed I'd be measuring this height like last time.)

Posted by HKoenig at 04:37 PM | Permalink

The Grotto that started the night before didn't last, so when I came out for the middle of the night Grand, nothing much was happening down there. Giant's platform looked like there hadn't been an event in hours. Thanks to Grand having a 9 hour interval, I got to see the platform again, when it looked unchanged just before a short, weak hot period. But then Grotto started, and it became apparant that this was going to be the hoped for marathon.

The marathon meant that it was possible to be elsewhere, and I was able to fulfill other obligations, as the photo shows. I'm told that while I was gone, Beehive had an eruption that was actually preceded by the Indicator. That evening, thirteen hours after the start, Grotto was still erupting.

Other Geyser Times

• Grotto Fountain 06:33
• Grotto 06:44
• Giant hot periods
  • 06:27 d=1m57s
  • 07:35 d=4m21s
  • 08:40 d=1m40s

Posted by HKoenig at 08:25 AM | Permalink

The marathon quit shortly after sunrise, setting things up for an afternoon of Giant. A short afternoon, as the hot period took place at 12:44. It was disappointing because it didn't last long (about 9 minutes) and did not feature much in the way of Mastiff activity. And then the hourly hot periods resumed with a Mastiff bathtub.

That activity continued, with the last daylight hot period actually the best of the day, and in some ways better than the recovery hot period. Grotto also started only about a half hour earlier, so it was hoped that it was a new marathon starting, and this all meant everyone could get a good night's rest.

Grand finally almost cooperated by erupting just before sunset, with the light disappearing late in the eruption. There was a particularly intense rainbow coming straight out of Vent when you stood in the right location. It would cooperated better if it had had a second burst.

Other Geyser Times

• Grotto 19:48
• Giant hot periods
  • 12:44 d≈9m
  • 14:04 bathtub
  • 16:14 d=2m00s
  • 17:27 d≈6m
  • 18:57 d=2m
  • 20:14 d=7m15s

  Posted by HKoenig at 03:36 PM | Permalink

Turns out it was a mistake. Spent a whole night, and the next day, seeing weak hot periods and short Grotto eruptions. Grotto finally went into a marathon at 14:35, and Giant had the big hot period we'd been expecting for 36 hours shortly after that. The first six minutes of it seemed fairly ordinary, the only distinguishing feature being a number of previously quiet vents were active. Then, several minutes after Feather had quit, it restarted and Giant started massive surging. So much so that observers there insisted Giant was about to start. Unfortunately, it didn't, and now we wait out the marathon.

Grand seems to like having short intervals during the evening, night and early mornings, reserving the longer intervals for mid day when the crowds are the largest. The morning eruption was right at the time when the sun was appearing over the trees, so that only the tops of the jets, and the mass of the second burst were illuminated.

Other Geyser Times

• Grotto 00:42 d≈2h15m, 09:00 d≈1h15m, 14:39
• Grotto Fountain 08:57, 14:35
• Giant hot periods
  • 00:16 d=4m37s
  • 01:17 d=2m08s
  • 02:27 d=4m32s
  • 03:58 bathtub
  • 05:02 bathtub
  • 06:08 bathtub
  • 07:15 bathtub
  • 08:10 bathtub
  • 09:05
  • 10:04
  • 10:56 bathtub
  • 11:57 4m53s
  • 12:51 bathtub
  • 14:02 d=1m55s
  • 15:11
  • 15:57 d=2m22s
  • 17:02 bathtub
  • 18:02 d=5m55s + restart

Posted by HKoenig at 03:48 PM | Permalink

Another pretty dull day, with lots of weak Giant hot periods and waiting for Grotto to do something. But as the day progressed, the amount of surging in Giant and Mastiff got stronger. Made it easy to believe that something might happen, and soon.

Other Geyser Times

24 June 2007

• Grotto Fountain 10:44, 18:44ie
• Grotto 10:48, 18:44ie
• Giant hot periods
  • 11:30
  • 12:24 d=1m44s
  • 13:32 d=3m46s
  • 14:22
  • 15:28 d=4m40s
  • 16:17 bathtub
  • 17:13 d=2m27s
  • 18:18 d=5m20s
  • 19:10 d≈2m
  • 20:12 d=2m46s
  • 21:11 d=4m19s
  • 22:08 bathtub
  • 23:17

Posted by HKoenig at 09:22 AM | Permalink

Grotto went into a marathon eruption. Start time was almost certainly the eruption the previous night, as it was erupting when I was out at Grand after midnight. Well into the eruption Grotto had the first observed Rocket major eruption that I have heard of for this year, at 12:48. Lasted only a couple of minutes, and a strange time for it. But the marathon ended shortly thereafter.

This set the recovery hot period in the early nighttime hours. The duration was a bit disappointingly short, but an indication that at least we don't need to worry too much about any eruption taking place on Sunday.

Fan & Mortar continued their usual chaotic behavior with flashes of " hot periods" which sucked in a new set of the newly arrived who someone get the idea that the very first cycle they see is the one that's going to initiate an eruption. Despite being the same as what everyone else has been seeing for weeks.

Beehive broke out of its window, with a late evening eruption. Again, it appears that there was no indicator. Beehive surged a couple of times and then took off.

Other Geyser Times

• Giant hot period 22:30 d=5m37s

Posted by HKoenig at 09:21 AM | Permalink