Observations for 2021 August 30


After last night, I still could have gone out for the next grand eruption. I woke up before it occurred, but decided not to do that. Turned out to be the correct decision, as Grand had a One Burst Eruption about ten minutes later. Not enough time to get dressed and down the biketrail.

The day mostly consisted of a couple of events at Fan & Mortar and a couple of One Burst Grand eruptions. The Fan & Mortar events followed the same pattern-- splashing in Main Vent during a pause (or in the second case, two pauses) followed by no real followup from Upper Mortar. In both cases, the events, took place well before it was time to head to Grand.

The Grand eruptions were different. The midday eruption came on a Turban Delay Interval, and had over four minutes of boops out of Grand before it finally, reluctantly, erupted. This eruption lasted just under ten minutes, and unlike the eruption last night, Vent & Turban continued. The second had no delay, was just a long interval. It started with Turban erupting while Grand was overflowing heavily. It lasted close to eleven minutes and Vent & Turban did quit this time.

Before the second Fan & Mortar event wait, spent some time down at East Sentinel. It has changed since I was last there. It was boiling heavily and irregularly up to two meters along the southern edge of the vent. The water level was fluctuating between heavy overflow and down about 10cm. It might be having actual minor eruptions from that area, but I didn't see one in the hour I spent there.