Geyser Notes

After midnight it was still slightly overcast. The moon was able to shine through an obvious layer of what was probably a smoky cloud, but that also did seem to have the side effect of keeping the night warm.

As it was, the wait for a nice two burst eruption was only one Turban interval. Despite the subdued lighting, it was also possible on occasion to see a slight moonbow in the steam.

In the morning, it cleared up, and was nicely calm for a sunrise Grand eruption. The shadows of the trees on the hillside were visible during much of the long one-burst eruption.

After that, it didn't warm up much, and the wind picked up so much that by the time Beehive erupted, a bit after 11:00, the water column was sent sideways across Geyser Hill towards Cascade. At least the direction was steady, and only the people on the corner by Plume had to evacuate due to the water.

Speaking of Plume-- one thing that hadn't been mentioned before, so it surprised me, was that Plume is not just dormant, but rumbling can be heard at depth. I've been around Plume dormancies before, but have never seen this sort of activity. No idea what it means,other than, along with activity by Little Squirt and Dome today, that Geyser Hill is messed up.

After the morning eruption, the average for the last twelve Grand intervals was 6h22m, with a range from 5h48m to 6h56m. That changed with the next interval, where Grand decided it was time to toss in an interval of over eight hours for no apparent reason, other than Rift did erupt. But Rift hasn't mattered much lately. We didn't have any delays, but the pool never looked good and Grand never seemed to want to try until the Turban eruption on which it finally started another one burst eruption. This one was short, only ten minutes, so a bit disappointing after the long wait.

In years past, having four Grand eruptions in one day was worthy of comment. The past few weeks it seems that is now the norm. In any case, the fourth Grand of the day came after dark, and just as the moon was becoming visible. At the start of the eruption, an orangish glow in the steam cloud was apparent. Then the tops of the highest jets were illuminated, more so each minute. A second burst would have been nicely spectacular, but there wasn't one. The interval on this eruption was just seconds short of six hours.

I haven't moved the truck in a week, since I got back from Shoshone. In that time, a spider found the time to build a web between the antenna and the neighboring cabin.