Observations for 2021 August 03


Was a bit surprised to arrive at Grand and find the pool full. It was about 16 hours since the last observed eruption, and I had expected there to have been a couple of eruptions during that time, and I'd arrive to find the pool refilling and not at overflow.

Over in the Sawmill Group, a deep drain was in progress. Sawmill and Uncertain were gurgling at depth. Slurp was roaring and Penta also rumbling. Spasmodic's main pool levels were not visible. Oval was down deep and erupting from the northern vent. Penta's Sixth Vent was a frying pan of sorts, probably full of rainwater with steam forcing its way through and causing the bubbling.

Saw a Turban eruption shortly after I arrived, and the next Turban was 34 minutes later. Shortly after that we got an eruption of West Triplet along with Percolator and Sput D. Half hour later, West Triplet ended without Rift starting.

Grand itself waited three more Turban eruption intervals before it erupted. A nine minute first burst was followed by a typical 3/4 minute second burst. Vent and Turban even continued despite the total duration being well over ten minutes long.

After this we learned that the electronic recorder for Grand showed only one eruption during the night, about five hours before my arrival. The other interval was well over eleven hours long. This seems extremely long, and seems like it could be a pair of short intervals, but the recorder's graph clearly doesn't show it. Will have to wait and see if Grand does something like that again.

From there it was down to Fan and Mortar for the first event of the day. Lots of Main Vent splashing while Bottom Vent erupted for well over half an hour. Then nothing much.

Went on down to check on East Sentinel. It seems that the boiling along the rim wasn't as active, and appeared to be cycling over a period of a minute or so. Didn't expect much, but will keep checking on it in conjunction with Fan & Mortar trips.

Another Fan & Mortar event took place just before it was time to go to Grand, so I went there instead. Was similar to the earlier event, and didn't result in an eruption. As I left and headed to wait at Grand, I got to see the eruption from the bike trail at the curve by Oblong. So went up to Daisy instead, were I got a pretty standard eruption lasting just over 3-1/2 minutes.

In the evening, we got a third Fan & Mortar event. This one even featured a short River Vent pause, and all the vents started moments after River restarted. For a while the eruptive activity looked good enough to start preparing to get wet, but after a while, things died down. At no time today did I see any surging in Upper Mortar, although Lower was quite active.

Expected Grand to wait until after dark to erupt, but instead it cooperated and gave us a nice start while there was still plenty of light. Was another duration over 12 minutes, so no chance of any second burst.

Back in the cabin, heard the call on the radio for Beehive's Indicator, so rushed out in the dark to see it start as we walked up on Anemone. A good number of people there considering it was dark. Again, I tried but didn't see any activity from the little crack in the base of the cone.