Geyser Notes

Arrived out at Grand to find West Triplet erupting. Must have been near start, as it continued for another forty minutes. As it ended, Rift started. I assumed that that meant sputtering for at least the next half hour, so went back to where I was trying to stay warm. Was surprised when the next Turban eruption, about ten minutes later, began abruptly and continued with that vigorous sound that implies an eruption.

Weren’t disappointed, as it was another one of those cases where Grand follows Turban by about a minute. But it was so steamy that even a torchlight couldn’t cut through the steam. So moved down toward West Triplet, only to discover that Rift was no longer erupting. The duration of that eruption had to be only about five or six minutes. Did quickly check to see that there was water still coming down the runoff, then went back to watching Grand. Our coming out at night was rewarded with a second burst, this time clearly visible from our location.

So Rift is starting to get interesting. This was the first eruption where it didn’t seem to function as a delay, and these short eruptions have become quite common. It also seems that Rift’s intervals have also become much shorter. Will have to be careful in that area, as a mode shift may be in progress.

In keeping with the changes at Rift, before the morning Grand I noticed that there was definite steam coming from the location where East Triplet Geyser is buried. There’s now a line from Percolator toward Rift of a series of steaming spots in the ground. The Grand eruption itself took place with Rift in eruption, and Rift quitting during that eruption.

After that, wasted some time down by Fan & Mortar, and then at Grotto in hopes of a Rocket major eruption. But since the weather was looking bad, decided to come in. This resulted almost immediately with the Rocket eruption right after I’d left.

Beehive had another short Indicator eruption, this one about 6 minutes long, which is just enough time to get into the middle of the trees between the bridge and the cabin for the start of Beehive’s eruption.

The next Grand eruption was an adventure. It looked like rain, and I hoped to get there before it hit,but no such luck. The rain started as I crossed the bridge, and quickly turned into a downpour. I finally managed to get into my rain gear on without getting too wet. The storm was heading in from the north,instead of the usual southwest, and that probably didn’t help in my estimation of getting wet.

The storm lasted the usual two Turban intervals. The first Turban eruption seemed powerful, and it would have been a relief if it had gone. But Grand did wait for the rain to end (and people to reappear) before continuing the streak of single burst eruptions.

The option of going out to Fountain for an eruption got scratched due to the sky looking gray and nasty. But it was mostly clear for the next Grand eruption. Rift was in eruption, again, but right after Rift ended Turban had one of its short vigorous eruptions that often indicate a Grand eruption two Turban intervals later. Which is what happened. This night there were only three torchlights used to illuminate the third one burst eruption in a row.