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Observations for 2021 May 12


A nice cold, sunny morning. The first time in a while that conditions made bicycling out acceptible. Got out to find that Rift had just started. Waited for several Turban eruption intervals, including one which was short and with no overflow, but there was no Delay.

When Grand did start, the breeze was toward the northern runoff channel, so it wasn't possible to the eruption backlit after the start. At a little over nine minutes, the duration was disappointingly short. Rift was still erupting when we left, an hour and a half after arriving.

Went over to Geyser Hill, as it was nearing a day since the previous Beehive eruption. Had heard a visitor report of "something big" erupting on Geyser Hill, so wanted to see if Beehive had been missed. Based on the sloshing from the cone, it hadn't, and those people probably saw Lion erupt.

The wait was mostly uneventful, other than an eruption of Depression. It was cold enough that steam could be seen coming from the South Bubbler and maybe even the new little hole at the base of the cone. After about 1-1/2 hour wait, we finally had water in the Indicator vent. By then the clouds were predominating, but when the eruption started, the sun came out briefly, and that caused a wind shift to wet down the walkway nearest the cone. During the eruption the little side hole pushed out water even more than previous times, and quit at about the same time as the Indicator.

Did a quick check of Fan & Mortar, just to make sure they didn't erupt overnight. Saw no evidence for that.

The next Grand didn't require much of a wait, and we got another two burst eruption. It was also short, and could have given us a third in previous years.

Since there hadn't been a Daisy eruption observed since before the morning Grand eruption, went over there just to check things out. It was obvious that Daisy was close to erupting. That eruption only lasted 3m09s, and had been dying down since about the 2-1/2 minute mark.

More time spent at Fan & Mortar got us an uneventful cycle. A bit of splashing from Bottom Vent, then the Fan vents all started within a minute or two.

At sunset, there were high clouds blocking much of the light, but they were also keeping the little warmth in. The wind had also died down.

Arrived at Grand during a Turban eruption that caused a fairly deep drop in the pool. Wondered if we'd just missed a Delay interval. As it turned out, we watched a Bulger major eruption, then saw that the pool was full and had small waves. Once the base surge cleared, it was easy to see Turban and Vent starting.

It came as a complete surprise when Grand abruptly stopped at the 6-1/2 minute mark. There was a short pause, and then the second burst began. Unfortunately, it continued on strong, and by the minute mark, it became obvious that this wasn't going to be a multi-burst eruption. There also wasn't much Big Sawmill activity this burst either, and it also quit fairly quickly just with a duration just over nine minute. The pool was too steamy to see anything, so when a minute passed with no third burst, we knew it was over.

At that point I thought I saw and heard Castle, with was due. But closer look showed no eruption there. Turns out, during the Grand eruption, Castle also erupted, but it had a minor eruption. I just heard one of the big slops it was having, and continued to have as we walked past it.