Observations for 04 August 2018
Updated: 2018 Aug 11: Uploaded video at New Crater/Steamboat Eruption 2018 Aug 04.
After Giant, there was no reason to not got to Norris this morning, other than I was getting short on sleep. Left in the dark at 05:00, only saw two elk along the way, and arrived at Norris at 06:00.
We'd packed up and covered the truck and were just heading to the entrance trail when we heard Kit yelling on the radio. Seems Steamboat was having one of its huge minor eruptions, and she thought it was starting. As it turned out, it came close, but no eruption. Good thing too.
For the next eight hours, there were a few minors, but nothing to get too excited about. It was a cool, windy day, with occasional clouds. Then, after a lull of several hours, at 14:10, there was a sudden surge in activity, and within moments, we had an eruption.
It was a bit windy, but blowing away from us. Toward the parking lot. The north then climbed quickly, while the south never came close to matching it. Comparing this eruption to the one on 27 May, this one didn't seem as tall, but was definitely more powerful. We had to shout at each other. The water column of the north vent also never turned reddish brown. It did look dirty at times. With the wind, I would suppose that much of the water was carried beyond the local watershed which feeds back into the north vent.
Another difference was that it was harder to tell when the water phase ended. An hour later there was still a small stream of water coming out of the southernmost part of the south vent. It was my impression that within 15 minutes the columns had lost all their height and were mostly steam.
The platforms were packed almost from the start. That there was a ranger talk being given at the top platform contributed to that, too.
Later on finally got down to take a look at the runoff. It was a lot less than the previous eruption I've seen, which supports the contention that there wasn't as much water. (Or that a lot more of it was being tossed onto the trees and parking.)
The car cover I bought specifically for use at Norris worked perfectly. We got back to a dry lot, but there were lots of vehicles covered with white residue. I saw one Ford F150 pickup that used to be black, but now was a sort of matte-finished gray. Including the windows.
Did go out for the last Grand eruption of the day. It was a nice two burst, but the wind picked up just before the eruption started, so impossible to see the start of Turban or Vent.
On the way out, heard the screech of an owl that was sitting in one of the dead trees in the Castle runoff. Could hear it over at Grand, too.