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Observations for 2025 June 02


After a night where any sort of aurora failed to appear, we were rudely awaken by the radio call for the start of Beehive's Indicator. Made it out in plenty of time, and didn't need the umbrella this time.

Afterwards, not knowing the time of the overnight Grand eruption, I decided to head out at the twelve hour mark. Then I heard another radio report of the bear and cub in the Daisy Group. That quickly changed to near Castle. I decided today would be a good day to be on foot, in case the NPS decided to shut an area down and I ended up separated from my bike.

Got to Grand just in time of the start of Turban. I'd arrived so early that shortly after I was able to see Grand's first overflow, with the water suddenly creeping down the dry runoff channels. That's when I learned that the overnight time had been posted. Seems that First Overflow time hasn't changed much over the years. This one was 4h17m, and I'd always worked off of 4h20m.

At the same time, Belgian and Crystal were both still extremely low.

What was interesting was that the Turban interval following was over 30 minutes long. One hypothesis I've had is that almost every Grand eruption has a Turban Delay Interval, it's just that we don't seem a lot of them because they come between First Overflow and the opening of the eruption window, when people finally start observing Grand.

In any case, I headed on down basin to check out Economic. It was in overflow, but not as strong as what was seen last night. Onward to Giant. The flowers growing in front of Bijou and Catfish are out in force, and a good sign nothing much has happened there.

Then did the loop around Daisy, which had erupted as I approached Oblong. On the boardwalk next to the swamp beyond Splendid, I found a long line of muddy little bear footprints. All the way to the junction.

Bear cub footprints on boardwalk beyond Splendid Geyser.

Being a Monday, I realized that I needed to head back to Grand before the boardwalk construction crew arrived at 10:00. Got back just in time, as the guy putting up the closure signs appeared at Chromatic at 10:10.

On the way back, noticed that Economic seemed unchanged.

The wait for the One Burst Grand eruption only an hour, with no Turban Delay Intervals. It lasted over eleven minutes, and was followed by a six minute pause in Vent & Turban's activity. West Triplet also started thumping and splashing following Grand.

2025-Jun-02 : 11:15:42 G1Q

 11:15:36	Boop	-0m06s
 11:15:42	B1	--- d=11m04s
 11:16:17	Vent Ovfl	0m35s
 11:16:33	Turban	0m51s
 11:19:21	Vent	3m39s
 11:26:46	P1	11m04s
 11:27:57	V&T Quit	12m15s
 11:34:18	V&T Restart	18m36s

				     	ΣD=11m04s
	* * * * *
 08:21:38			d=02m58s 
 08:31	                                  Grand 1st Ovfl
 08:55:23	Int: 33m45s	d=04m16s  Delay	
 -- Missed --
 09:55:15			d=04m04s 	
 10:16:51	Int: 21m36s	d=04m24s 	
 10:35:06	Int: 18m15s	d=03m57s 	
 10:55:20	Int: 20m14s	d=03m43s 	
		      Grand: 20m22s

While waiting for Grand, I was surprised to see Uncertain erupt. All of us waiting there saw the narrow water column, but afterwards Uncertain did not exhibit its usual post-eruption gentle steaming. Instead it was splashing as if it hadn't erupted. It had quieted down a bit by the time I left the area after Grand.

Down at Grotto the boardwalk crew swapped out dumpsters. As usual with the NPS, the esthetics of the placement has a lot to be desired.

Dumpster placement at Grotto Geyser.

Then spent 1-1/2 hours at Fan & Mortar watching what appeared to be a real cycle of activity. Started out near the end, with all the vents of Fan erupting weakly. They then stopped for a while, until I notice Bottom Mortar splashing at depth. This got stronger and then Fan's River vent started. Shortly after, High started and looked quite strong-- 2-3 meters high with Gold also joining in strong. That didn't last long, maybe a minute at most, then the activity subsided. When I left, it looked a lot like how it did when I arrived.

A quick check of East Sentinel showed no change in appearance from yesterday.

At Grand there was an hour wait under cold and blustery gray skies for an undistinguished One Burst Eruption that lasted just over nine minutes, which made no attempt at a second burst.

2025-Jun-02 : 17:59:34 G1C

 17:59:27	Vent Ovfl	-0m07s
 17:59:29	Boop	-0m05s
 17:59:34	B1	--- d=09m11s
 17:59:37	Turban	0m03s
 18:02:35	Vent	3m01s
 18:08:45	P1	9m11s
Vent & Turban continue

				     	ΣD=09m11s
	* * * * *
 16:59:17			
 17:18:48	Int: 19m31s	d=03m50s 	
 17:38:46	Int: 19m58s	d=03m53s 	
		      Grand: 20m48s

It was almost dark when the radio call for the start of Beehive's Indicator went out. It included a request for a flashlight. It was still bright enough that the water column could be observed, but we lit it up anyhow. Fortunately, despite it being a windy day, there was no wind during Beehive's eruption, with the water column going straight up and the spray dropping straight down. As we left, the wind picked back up.


("Coy"? Or is it spelled "koi"? Obviously some petty apparatchik decided that someone else, at some time in the future, could potentially be offended by calling a newborn bear a "cub" and that needed to be rectified immediately. Renaming well established things is an offensively obnoxious and stupid exercise of raw power, whether it is unilaterally renaming "Mt. Doane" to "First Peoples Mountain", the "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America", or changing "cub" to "coy". The online dictionaries don't seem to have caught up with this particular neologism, either.)