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Observations for 15 July 2013


So this morning was a replay of yesterday. Except Grand never even attempted to erupt during the wait. Then it was time for West Triplet and Rift. Rift finished, and yet another Turban eruption started. Except by about a minute in, it became obvious that Turban was much more powerful than usual, and there was enough light from the dawn to see the steam increasing over Grand's pool. So after two minutes, there was a one burst eruption, the beginning of which was nicely backlit by the brightening sky.

For the next interval, Grand finally cooperated. It had the short interval at a time when I was out there for it. Following the Rift eruption this morning, I was half-expecting it. Early in the window, and with most of the noise-makers in the Lower Basin, it was also a pleasant short wait. Quitting after the second burst wasn't surprising, but having West Triplet start and having the restart take the maximum amount of time wasn't either.

The Sawmill Group had looked pretty high, and Tardy was still erupting, so I figured I could hang around there for the drop in the system. Instead, the wait for the restart delayed me, so for this Penta eruption, I saw the start from up by Belgian Pool. It lasted 1h10m, but didn't have the steam-phase type activity I'd seen the other day. This time Oval did not pulsate, either.

By that point, Fan & Mortar was having another event cycle. This time, at least, the person calling it had been there a while, so I decided to head down since I had nothing better to do. Another one of those cases where Mortar's Bottom Vent takes over, causing the rest of the system to stall out until it's finished. It seems to do that every four to six hours lately.

For the evening eruption of Grand, I went out expecting that I might be there at sunset. As it turned out, I had to wait just one Turban interval. It was a case where when Vent overflowed, it poured out the water. With the low sun and enough of a breeze, the staring columns of both bursts were spectacularly tall.

West Triplet started and I decided to wait for either the end of it's eruption, or the start of Rift. Was a bit surprised to see the latter, since we'd already had a Rift eruption in the morning. Not a good sign. On the other hand, having three of the last four intervals be around 6 hours makes me hope for a bit of a shift to the shorter side.