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Observations for 2021 August 28


In the morning, Little Squirt was reported to be in eruption. By the time I got there about an hour later, it had finished much earlier. But the warm ground frying pan area did have some steam and noise coming from it. I suspect the activity we saw back in May was due to the wet weather drowning the warm ground. But it does indicate that the ground there has potential to develop further.

Arrived at Grand with Percolator in eruption, and Sput D joined in shortly after. So no surprise that West Triplet started about a half hour later. Which led into the start of Rift just before Grand. This was another Turban initiated eruption, after a couple of longer Turban eruption durations and intervals. Might have been some sort of delay before I arrived.

There was a report of East Sentinel erupting shortly before I went out, so after Grand, went down to check it out. Definitely something happened there. The pool was murky and mostly quiet, with just a slight boil along the southern edge. The pool was below overflow when I arrived, but rose quickly, which could be just the normal cycling. There were wet pools, but not as full as I would have expected after a couple of hours. The northern formation was completely dry, indicating no boiling from the alcove area. And there was just a hint of the smell of low tide.

At Beehive, we had several bubbling sputs -- Close-to-Cone, South Bubbler, West Bubbler -- before the Indicator finally started. There was little wind, so the water column was tall with only small segment of the boardwalk getting wet. During the eruption, the Base Vent also was active.

Grand had a Turban Delay Interval, and just before the second Turban eruption after that, Bulger had the only second eruption I've seen this visit. It also included an eruption of Bulger's Hole. A check after the Grand eruption showed that Crystal and Belgian were down about 5cm, and Slurp was barely steaming. Sawmill had also quit about fifteen minute prior.

Grand erupted almost immediately after Bulger. If the One Burst Eruption had taken place one Turban eruption interval later, the sun would have been set. As it was, there was no wind, and we got a nice rainbow once Vent started. Around the nine minute mark there were several slowdowns that weren't long enough for false pauses, but were enough to ensure the eruption continued.