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Observations for 2024 August 15


At sunrise in the cabin area the fog was so thick that it was hard to see the farthest cabins, and walking to the indoor plumbing was through a mist.

Only had to wait one Turban eruption interval for the first One Burst Grand eruption of this visit. While it was still foggy, it was possible to see details of the start of the eruption, which started out well enough. But around then ten minute mark, it got entertaining. The eruption devolved into Big Sawmill, and at the eleven minute mark there was a significant false pause. There was another about 30 seconds later, and a third about ten seconds before the eruption finally ended at just over 13 minutes. Much of the last minute or so consisted of large splashes only a couple of meters high. It was also no surprise that Vent & Turban quit within seconds of Grand's end.

2024-Aug-15:08:58:11 G1Q

 08:58:11	B1	--- d=13m03s
 08:58:19	Turban	0m08s
 09:01:03	Vent	2m52s
 09:09:18	FP	11m07s
 09:09:43	FP	11m32s
 09:11:04	FP	12m53s
 09:11:14	P1	13m03s
 09:11:27	V&T Quit	13m16s

				     	ΣD=13m03s
	* * * * *
 08:41:19			d=02m35s 	
		      Grand: 16m52s

Spent the rest of the morning out in the basin since we needed to wait for our proper cabin to be made available. So after breakfast, went on down to see an eruption of Daisy. The interval was only 100 minutes, which is much less than the close to two hour intervals of previous years.
The duration was 3m11s, which seemed too short.

After than it was time to see the next Castle eruption following the eruption I saw last night. Didn't have to wait long for the 2m45s long minor eruption.

After finally getting moved into our cabin, went back out to Grand. This time we had to wait two Turban eruption intervals for Grand. Shortly before that we got to see an eruption of Oblong, which didn't seem to be as tall as I've seen previous years.

The Grand eruption took place in a break in the gathering afternoon thunderstorm clouds. The first burst lasted 9m15s, but the crater never really drained, so a second burst was expected. After the eruption, I noticed that West Triplet was in heavy overflow. No attempt at an eruption, and in a few minutes the overflow had ceased.

2024-Aug-15:15:38:17 G2Q

 15:38:15	Boop	-0m02s
 15:38:17	B1	--- d=09m16s
 15:38:51	Vent Ovfl	0m33s
 15:38:59	Turban	0m42s
 15:41:47	Vent	3m29s
 15:47:34	P1	9m16s d=55s
 15:48:29	B2	10m12s d=56s
 15:49:26	P2	11m09s
 15:50:09	V&T Quit	11m51s

				     ΣB=10m13s	ΣD=11m09s
	* * * * *
 14:59:00			d=04m08s 	
 15:18:14	Int: 19m14s	d=04m24s 	
		      Grand: 20m03s

I noticed after that that Oval Spring was down and murky, and not sure what that might mean.

Walked over toward Sawmill, where I could hear Uncertain gurgling. Water was visible in Sawmill's vent, and a few minutes later was noticeably higher. But over the next half hour, the water level in Sawmill dropped out of sight, while the gurgling in Uncertain slowly turned into splashed.

Then Castle had another eruption, this time a major eruption. There were a number of distinct pauses followed by tall jets.

Right after the start of Castle Tardy erupted for a couple of minutes. That's when Uncertain's splashing really picked up. A minute after Tardy ended Uncertain's vent filled and overflowed water, and we thought the eruption had started. But it subsided and a few second later a second surge turned into an eruption. Got back into the cabin just as the thunderstorm raindrops started.

Was planning to head out to Grand for a moonlight eruption, but that thunderstorm was the first of several. Getting soaked in the dark held little appeal.