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Observations for 2022 August 26


With the only information available was that Grand was empty nine hours after the one we saw last night, figured there were several hours before time to show up again. So headed down to Fan & Mortar to do some computer work that didn't require Internet access.

About 45 minutes later, I'd finished the first task, and stopped to take a break and eat something from the food sack in the pack. Walked over toward the benches and commented on how good High vent looked. Was told the current cycle started about fifteen minutes earlier, and what we were seeing was High erupting a couple of meters high continuously, along with water pouring out of Gold. The Frying Pans were starting, and it really looked good. The radio call went out, and that caused High to stop briefly, but when it came back, it was as strong or stronger than before. We also got some rumbling in Upper Mortar

Within a few minutes, Upper Mortar had a short surge to about 1-1/2 meter high. That was followed about 75 seconds later by another, larger surge that lasted maybe 20 seconds. It died down momentarily, then all the vents-- Bottom, Lower, Main, East and Angle filled and began erupting.

Start of Eruption of Fan & Mortar Geysers, 2022 August 26

The wind and conditions for an eruption were ideal-- Warm enough that there was little steam, wind blowing downstream and away from the walkway, sun high enough in the east for rainbows. It also seemed like Lower Mortar was much more active than in the eruptions I've see over the past few years. All of the vents seemed to be taller or throw farther.

Afterwards, at Grand, it was a Turban Delay interval followed by five more intervals before we finally got the One Burst Grand. We never did find out when the overnight eruption occurred.

The next One Burst Grand Eruption took place just before sunset. Too bad there wasn't a second burst instead of one burst lasting 11-1/2 minutes. Also, this was another case where the eruption was preceded by a Turban eruption where Grand had little to no overflow.