Observations for 2016 May 16


Decided we needed to see what was happening at Norris for ourselves. It was a foggy drive to there, but other than one herd between Madison Jct housing area and Terrace Spring, no bison on or near the road.

Spent an hour there, and that was more than enough. The activity was no better than any of the time we spent during the previous wait, and probably worse. The day was turning nice and clear, and the idea of wasting one of the first nice days this visit on that platform was unappealing.

Instead, got back in time for a weak event at Fan & Mortar, then a wait at Grand. First I spent an hour at Beehive, where there was enough splashing to show that there hadn't been an early morning eruption in the fog. I did get to see another Depression eruption as I left.

At Grand, got to see a three Turban Delay One Burst Grand eruption. The delay featured a small boop several minutes before Turban started. Once again, when the eruption started, it was with Turban a few seconds before Grand. Have yet to see any Turban start that wasn't associated with a Delay, or one that was more than a few seconds prior to Grand.

At around the ten minute mark, got a nice False Pause from Grand that lasted a second or two. Then the eruption continued for another minute, and despite a total duration well over 10-1/2 minutes, Vent & Turban continued.

Spend more of the afternoon first out at Daisy, then over to Fan & Mortar.

The early evening Grand was looking good until the sun came out from behind a bank of clouds, and someone stopped a group passing by telling them it was going to erupt. Then the waves stopped and the pool level dropped. But a couple of minutes later, it rose back up and erupted even before the Turban interval could be considered a Delay.

At around the 8-1/2 minute mark, Big Sawmill mode started, and the eruption lasted a couple more minutes.