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Link Geyser, 1983

Here's a series of photos showing some of the activity of Link Geyser and the Chain Lakes Group during the activity in October 1983. Over a period of five days, Mary Ann Moss, Marie Wolf and I got to see several dozen major eruptions. We missed much of the activity of the first day.

Mary Ann took these photos, and as you can see, it was cold, damp and gray that week, which made seeing the eruptions difficult at times, but it didn't snow or rain. For more details on the activity, see my article in one of the early GOSA Transactions. Think of this as a supplement to that article.

Runoff from Link Geyser eruption in Oct 1983. Photos by M.A.Moss.

Here's what we saw of one of the first eruptions we witnessed. A lot of steam coming from opaque water. The ruts produced by the runoff channel didn't get much deeper or wider over the next few days, which supports our conclusion that the first few eruptions that no one saw were even more voluminous and powerful than what we saw.

Link Geyser eruption, October 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.

Here's one of the better photos, showing some of the details of the jets. I would estimate the height here at around 15 meters. We think we saw higher, more angled jets at times.

Link Geyser runoff, Oct. 1983. Photos by M.A.Moss.

A couple more views of the discharge from an eruption.

Next are a series of close-up views of the drained vents of the Chained Lakes.

Clasp Geyser vent, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.
North Chain Lake Geyser vent, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.
Vent between North and Middle Chain Lake Geysers, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.
Middle Chain Lake Geyser vent, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.
Bottomless Pit vent, Oct, 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.
Link Geyser vent, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss
Link Geyser vent, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss
Eruption of Link Geyser, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.
Firehole River just after eruption of Link Geyser, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.
Aftermath of eruption of Link Geyser, Oct. 1983. Photo by M.A.Moss.

Note the debris washed onto the bike trail. We never saw an eruption put out enough water to reach that far, which again supports our assumption that the first eruptions were even larger.

And that's J.Randolph Railey watching the eruption.

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Grand's North Triplet Sputs

It appears that the locations and designations of the various sputs that have appeared in and around the old site of North Triplet are in need of further documentation. In going through some old files, I came across photos that Lynn Stephens took of that area in October 1989. While a lot of things there have changed since then, this does give a good record of what was happening there, and how it relates to current activity.

Sketch map of Grand's Sputs area. From 1989.

The map comes from my original GOSA Transactions article on the area, and is still a good guide. The only major difference is the disappearance of East Triplet, and the associated Sput-Cs near it.

Sputs overview, Oct 1989. Photo by L.Stephens.

In the center of this photo, with a downed branch beside it, is Sputnik, or Sput-B. To the left, the plume of steam, is Delta, or Sput-D. In the foreground are several frying pans constituting Sput-E, which are no longer active, but the area is still devoid of vegetation.

Sputs-F, Sputnik and East Triplet. Photo by L.Stephens.

On the left edge of the photo the rim of East Triplet's vent can be made out. Above and to the right, beside the downed log is Sputnik. The large brown area of dead grass is Sput-F. Eventually, three areas of activity became more pronounced and were given sub-designations.

Sput-F. Photo by L.Stephens.
Sput-F3. Photo by L.Stephens.
Sput-F1 and Sput-F2. Photo by L.Stephens.
Sput-B1. Photo by L.Stephens.
Sputnik (Sput-B), 1989 Sep 17. Photo by L.Stephens.

Sputnik also developed some satellite vents, one on each side. Over the years the craters have been filled and cleared out, so which is which is probably not possible to determine any more.

Sput-E1 and Sput-B2. Photo by L.Stephens.

In the foreground is the wet frying pan at the north end of Sput-E. Behind it, in the middle of the photo is Sput-B2, while Sputnik itself is near the top of the photo.

Note that at this time, Sput-D was a small hole which steamed heavily. Over the years it enlarged itself.

Grand Sputs in 2020. Photo by H.Koenig

The photo I took last year isn't from up close, but one can still see the are of Sput-F is still active, and the grass there hasn't recovered. Finally, here is a short video showing the area with everything that was active in June 2020.

Grand Sputs, 2020 Jun 25. Video by H.Koenig
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2021 Activity of East Sentinel Geyser

Video by H.Koenig

Some typical behavior, and some unusual behavior of East Sentinel during August and September. Chapter markers for—

  • Aug 02
  • Aug 09
  • Aug 16
  • Aug 21
  • Aug 22
  • Aug 23
  • Aug 28 13:28 Post eruption
  • Aug 30 14:30 South rim activity
  • Aug 31 06:53 Post eruption, empty
  • Aug 31 15:20
  • Sep 04 12:44 Post eruption
  • Sep 04 12:51
  • Sep 04 13:03
  • Sep 04 13:17
  • Sep 04 13:31
  • Sep 04 17:43 Minor eruption
  • Sep 04 18:37 Minor eruption
  • Sep 09 Post activity overflow cycle
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Giant Geyser Eruption of 1986 August 20

I was digging around in my files, looking for something else, and I came across this copy of a letter I sent to a friend two days after Giant Geyser erupted in 1986. Since I wrote it while the memories were fresh, I figure it might be interesting. The photos posted here were taken by George Strasser (Paul's brother), who not only had a camera, but remembered to use it.

On 20 August at 1136, Giant erupted. I was at Daisy for the start, and had just passed Giant five minutes earlier. At that time, it looked like it has all summer, fairly dead. So I get to Daisy, see that Splendid's markers are in place (it had four eruptions the next day), and start to unload my pack. Then I looked over at Daisy, and saw this huge steam cloud rise above the trees.

View from Old Faithful Lodge

Paul Strasser, John Railey and I have been using CB radios to keep in touch. They have been useful, but this time they paid for themselves. I grabbed the radio as I was running down the boardwalk and yelled into it, "Paul, something's erupting in the Giant Group!" He had just turned his on, and heard the "erupting in the Giant Group" part from the Lodge Cabins. He and Suzanne were down there in twelve minutes. Several other people saw the steamcloud from the VC, Lower Ham's store, or from Fantail (Biscuit Basin) and assumed either Grand or Oblong. They didn't see it.

[Paul and Suzanne were about to head out with the family of his brother George, "to look for animals", when the call came. The family was abandoned, allowing George to walk out on his own. Fortunately, he took the only series of photos of this eruption that I know about.]

Talked with some people there at the start, and they said that the sputs started maybe 30 seconds before Giant, and Mastiff was erupting only three to four feet high, but overflowing. When it started, Giant sent out a wall of water, running over the south end of the "T" boardwalk. They were afraid of scalded feet.

As I ran around the trees, I could see the water column still climbing. Mastiff was steaming and splashing heavily, while Catfish was sending a thin angled spray to 25 feet. Bijou was steaming only, and the others quickly followed. I took a short cut, and was quite pleased with events.

Giant was now near maximum height, which I estimated [measured?] to be between 150 and 180 feet (~165'). Two night before Sam Martinez and I were going to lay out a baseline, but decided not to since we would never get a chance to use it. [I think I told Sam: "It'll get stolen before we can use it."] The water column was thick, a lot like Ol' Filthy in that sense only. It also pulses, like Beehive, so it doesn't stay at max height, but drops to about 80', then surges back up. The water seemed clear, and the weather was excellent. Clear sky, dead calm but a bit humid. Paul said the steam cloud had to be several thousand feet high. Earlier that day was a thick fog, and later it rained.

By the time Paul and Suzanne arrived, surges were still in the 120' range, but the power had definitely diminished, Originally the water column appeared vertical, now it began to angle to the west slightly. It also sent spray toward the boardwalk. But on the whole, it looked exactly like the old photos.

A half hour later, Giant was still hitting 50', but there was little runoff. By now several sputs were erupting on the platform. They looked like little Uncertains, but only ~4' high. They also surged at the same time as Giant.

By 1227, Giant was mostly steam, and all steam by 1236. Grotto was not erupting all this time.

Note wet boardwalk.

This was a strange eruption for coincidences. Not just Sam and I at the baseline. The day before at Splendid (no eruptions) T.Scott commented that he didn't have his camera, and if Giant erupted, he would kill himself.

South Purple pool had had several heavy surges of water earlier this year, and now was down below overflow. Later Grotto had some sort of steam phase, or minor eruption. The sputs between it and Rocket were erupting, but Rocket and Grotto made lots of noise and occasionally splashed. The next "real" Grotto [eruption] did not have an eruption of Grotto Fountain [preceding it].

Oblong has been weird this year, with intervals from 32 minutes(!) to 24 hours. Most intervals seem to tend toward 20 hours. Now it had three eruptions in a three hour period, with one interval of 37 minutes. These closing eruptions of a short interval are strange. The water is ejected from an empty pool, and some jets [from the north side] reach the river. They area also very noisy.

It took Bijou about 24 hours to recover, but the next day, the group looked as good, if not better, than it had all year. Now I'm hoping for an interval of less than a year. Say this coming March.

That night, we measured out the distance markers for Giant. Holding one end of the tape over Giant's vent, knowing that it couldn't erupt, was a scary experience.

In the previous thirty years, there had been only four known eruptions of Giant— in 1963, 1978, 1982 and 1984. It's been twenty four years since the last known eruption of Splendid...

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Big Cub Geyser in 1987

Big Cub Geyser. Photo by Phil Landis

Splendid was active then, and the best way to catch a series was to immediately notice when one started. Daisy was erupting nice and regular, about every 75 to 80 minutes (excluding wind effects). The initial eruption of Splendid would take place shortly before Daisy was expected, so if you didn't see an eruption at the predicted time, it was time to make a quick bike ride out to see what was going on. So every hour or so, I'd ride my bike over from The Box to the fence that ran along the walkway west of the Lodge. If I didn't see Daisy after about ten minutes or so, I'd head on down basin.

On 06 Aug 1987, around 10:30, I did my usual ride up, and saw a plume of water over on Geyser Hill. It wasn't Lion, and at first I thought I was seeing a North Goggles major. Then I realized that the water column was to the left of Lion, on the wrong side. I had no idea if it was Big Cub, or Lioness, so I got on my bike and went on around the circle to get a better look at Geyser Hill.

As I approached the Visitor Center, I saw Jim Lenertz and Rick Hutchinson looking over there with binoculars. They too had noticed the activity, and wanted to get a better view and to figure out which geyser it was.

It was Big Cub, and fortunately, Phil Landis, who was working as Rick's assistant, was on Geyser Hill near Teakettle, and was able to take this photo. (I don't know how to contact Phil for explicit permission. But it is, as far as I know, one of the few, if not the only, photo of Big Cub in eruption.) We watched the activity for at least 3-1/2 minutes, and I would estimate the height was from 10 to 12 meters. Note also that Little Cub was also in eruption.

Afterwards, Rick went over to checkout the platform there, to see if there were any other changes (or signs of manipulation). I tagged along. Everything looked normal, and if we hadn't actually seen the eruption, we wouldn't have seen any evidence of an eruption. (Other than it was a bit wetter down wind of Big Cub, but that dried quickly). The one interesting thing is that the vent has a little side hole in it. A small jet of water coming from it can be seen in the photo on the left.

And I did see Daisy a few minutes later, so no Splendid activity that day. Or for the next few weeks. But I did see Giant about a month later.

Update: I've been told that Phil took the photo as part of his official duties working for Rick, so it's in the public domain. And that Phil died of cancer a few years back.

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Visiting "Sizzling Creek" in 1986

M.A.Bellingham recently came across a photo in which I am "figure". Here's what I remember of that visit, which, after 35 years, may not be accurate.

Blowout pit west of Norris. Photo by R.A.Hutchinson, 1986.

Over the winter in 1986, probably in February, a snowcoach driver reported seeing a huge steamcloud off to the west of Norris. By July, someone had visited the area, and reported that there was at least one new, deep crater there, which had uprooted trees in what appeared to be a non-thermal area.

On 31 Jul 1986, Rick Hutchinson went out to investigate, and I tagged along. He parked at the large turnout in Elk Park, southwest of Norris. We forded the river and headed off to the north. The meadow area was pretty dry, so we didn't need to deal with marshy areas. We then we headed through the trees. Rick pointed out at one point that we were passing through a very old sinter shield area. For some old trees that had fallen over, and the white sinter among the roots was obvious.

As we approached the blowout crater, we went along a creek. For about 50 meters (or more), there were a series of frying pans in the bed of the creek. I don't remember if we were headed upstream or down. The blowout was near the creek.

Rick knew what to expect, as part of the gear he had brought out was a rope for rappelling into the crater so he could take samples of the water and soil and rocks. I told him that I didn't know how to help him if he got in trouble, but he said that there shouldn't be any problem. He also brought a small saw, in order to cut one of the tree trunks that had been snapped off and then count the rings, and get an idea of how long it had been since there had been thermal activity there.

So while Rick was down in the crater, I picked a nice sized tree and cut off the section. We counted 75 rings on a tree that had been alive when the eruption happened. I'm not sure what sort of things Rick collected, but he never needed my assistance while down in the pit.

As for a name, at the time I thought that "Sizzling Creek" would be a nice, bland, almost generic name that still was descriptive of a memorable feature of the area.

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Yellowstone Radio 2021 -- Part 2

More of the strangeness that comes over the NPS radio frequencies during August and early September.

  • Call of domestic dispute at the Madison campground registration office.
  • Someone dropped keys into vault toilet at Midway. Call for maintenence assistance. Later call said cell phone, but that was incorrect. Never heard if recovered.
  • Person at Inn front desk who missed the tour group. Then a second person at Lodge, but they were quickly reunited.
  • Broken arm at Fairy Falls.
  • Ford F150 dies in middle of road at Mary Mountain. Can't get into neutral to push off road.
  • Shouting match in front of OF Visitor Center results in a couple of disorderly conduct charges.
  • Found pouch containing jewelry in the middle of the road near Purple Mountain.
  • Wrecker call to get car back on road at Midway.
  • Three out in Kaleidoscope Group. One or two minors (unclear), engaged in vandalism while out there. Seeing magistrate later in the month.
  • Unattended daytime campfire at Madison ignites a chair. That night they got a court date.
  • Early morning drone pilot didn't count on maintenance being out, with radios, too.
  • Someone "made contact with a road sign" near Seven Mile Bridge, knocking it out of the ground. Also scattered a bunch of cones.
  • Drone pilot, over by ranger station, gets a court date. Fishing without a license gets you a court date, too.
  • Three hitchhikers in the OF construction zone.
  • Motorcyclist passing on right shoulder in bison jam backup, reported by maintanence. He got a warning.
  • Loose child in Midway parking area. Looking for a van but refuses help.
  • Five bicyclists reported at Artemisia headed toward Biscuit Basin.
  • First report of woman hit by car south of Madison. Later info-- suicidal 14 year old at swimming area turnout south of Firehole Canyon exit. Also, bystander activated emergency GPS beacon. Someone sent north for mental evaluation.
  • Visitor assist to rescue a phone that fell between the slats at the Old Faithful benches.
  • Removing dams in river at Firehole Picnic area. Next day report of car high centered on a rock at Firehole Picnic area.
  • Whole family of 5 at Midway going from Freight Road toward boardwalk. Another, separate single man got the mandatory appearance, then a ride back to his car at Ojo Caliente.
  • Maintanence call asking about car debris along road at Madison. Turns out it was debris from three way collision two days earlier.
  • Traffic stop. Unable to produce license. Person stalls. Finally produced Calif. ID card. No license. Consented to search. Passenger returned license expired in 2016. Missed the middle, but at the end, the driver got a court date for possession of marijuana. Also had to have car towed to West because neither had license.
  • Escaped dachshund or chihuahua mix in East Lot, the seen on freight road, the on main highway, then next day down by Morning Glory. "Iris" still on the loose several days later.
    • Update-- several days later I saw Iris run past my cabin door. Reported this, and an hour or so later, Iris was captured.
  • Belligerent dog owner at Giant encounters NPS person who has radio. multiple units intercept. dog owner wants to talk with supervisor. last i heard was that a report would be done later.
  • Nighttime bison vs. car 1 mile west of Madison Jct. Bison loses. Driver has minor leg injury, car is towed to West. Then second car drives up to report encounter with bison on road to Norris. No other details.
  • At night, one patrol pointed out to another that the guy in the turnout was relieving himself close to the roadway. Response from second unit: "lovely"
  • North of Madison, a dead porcupine in the middle of the southbound lane.
  • Lockout at the morning West Entrance elk jam-- contact volunteer for assistance. Seems they had a drone outside with them. Volunteer asks if she should do "education" or does LE want to? Last I hear, LE was on its way.
  • Verbal warning for a dog off leash in front of Old Faithful -- a "highly trained chihuahua doing tricks."
  • Report from RV driver that their small dog mix disappeared somewhere between Old Faithful and Seven Mile Bridge. They said they think they were hit by a gust of wind crossing Fountain Flats and the dog fell out. They sounded confused about locations. Later reports from maintenance of similar appearing dog running around Lodge Cabins. (This was while Iris was still missing.) Dog captured that evening.
  • Report of "inappropriate stickers" on signs at Fairy Falls and Biscuit Basin. Later report is that they are advertisements for a so-called "dispensary".
  • Maintenance encounters lockout at dawn at Midway. Need to wait until someone who can help is in service. Vehicle is running.
  • "Belligerent drone operator" at Old Faithful cabin area. Later seen in trees by cabins. Then group of four seen running down river.
  • "Oversize vehicle" (35ft RV) on Firehole Lake Dr
  • After dark on US 191-- motorcycle vs. moose
  • In parking lot by ranger station. RV almost rips door off Toyota. Leaves info and then drives off. Eventually did return.
  • Verbal warning for unsafe operation-- taking pictures while driving.
  • Madison-- report of unattended dog in kennel in tent. Not causing problems.
  • US 191 -- F150 towing trailer has engine problems. Is at park boundary, vehicle in park, trailer outside. Blocking traffic lane. Question of jurisdiction and who gets the tow.
  • Madison campsite, which previous day had visit concerning food storage and garbage disposal, today gets a call for unattended fire and disposing of metal in fire ring.
  • Lockout at Scaup Lake with "hot dog" inside.
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Observations for 2021 September 14

Decided that I needed an early morning Grand eruption, so headed out just as it was light enough to not need the headlight. Wasn't foggy like the previous dawn eruption I went out to see, but the walkways were slippery with frost. Waited for three Turban eruption intervals and got a short One Burst Eruption where Vent & Turban didn't quit.

Heard a report of possible Oblong eruption, so went out early to check it out. Shortly after noon I was able to see the empty crater. Also, in the background, I noticed that Solstice was in eruption, the first I've seen it this year. From the Bijou cage, I could see that there were wide runoff channels coming down from it, so it had been erupting for a while. On the way back, on the extreme northernmost part of Oblong's crater I noticed a small jet of water just above the rim.

The Giant Platform seemed to be in a marathon recovery mode, as Bijou was almost off. Every dozen seconds or so a few droplets could be seen coming from it, while the platform itself is as dry as I've seen it. No runoff from Mastiff, no damp spots in the catch basins, and little steam.

Back at Grand, I'd seen a Turban eruption as I tied up my bike. So I was surprised when I saw Turban start about 32 minutes later. Seemed like a Turban Delay Interval. The duration on Turban was well over five minutes, and the next Turban eruption had no overflow from Grand, which tends to confirm my suspicions. But then we got another delay, this one also well over thirty minutes. As the overflow started to look really good, we got a boop out of Grand, followed by over a minute of nothing happening. Then the waves built backup, and then we got a nicely explosive start to a One Burst Grand eruption. The duration was ten minutes and Vent & Turban quit.

Afterwards, went to check out Geyser Hill. Little Squirt had just started, and I wanted to observe the frying pans I'd seen back in May. It was obviously too warm and too soon for there to be any activity. About an hour later, it looked like there might be some steam coming from the main area, but that could have been just wishful thinking. Also on Geyser Hill, caught a weak Depression eruption that mostly had heavy upwelling and strong overflow until it suddenly dropped about 40cm.

Before sunset, the Sawmill Group was in a deep drain. As I was walking up the hill, Sawmill had a "Big Tardy" eruption with a duration of around 25 seconds.

Over at the Grand Group, Sput D was periodic. After about a half hour, that lead to West Triplet erupting, but not followed by Rift. Once the pool of Grand looked good, it took its time while the waves on the pool slowly got stronger. The sun had already set, but there was still enough glow in the sky to nicely illuminate the burst, which quit at 8m10s. It was steamy, and hard to tell at first, but we did get a nice, tall second burst. At around the 45 second mark, Grand didn't go into "Big Sawmill" mode. It went into "Big Tardy" mode. For about 15 seconds the height of the jets were 10 to 12 meters, at most. Then it finally quit, and for the next minute, it appeared there was water in the pool as the jetting from Vent got stronger and stronger. Finally, after about 90 seconds, the pool appeared empty, and Vent quickly died down and ceased entirely.

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Observations for 2021 September 13

With no reports on Grand and it being at almost eight hours, made a quick trip out to check on it. Was one of the foggier days for this trip, and I could tell Sawmill was erupting from the runoff, but I couldn't see it. Wasn't until I got to Rift that I found a quiet, empty crater at Grand. So probably erupted as much as two hours earlier.

Was coming out for the next Grand eruption, but first I got to see a less than four minute long Castle minor eruption. No Turban Delay, but did have to wait through several Turban eruption intervals before Grand started. The first burst lasted almost nine minutes, and the pause between the bursts was short. Unlike a number of the recent two burst eruptions, the behavior in Grand's pool was leaving no doubt of a second.

Did a check on East Sentinel, which is unchanged. Still having 19 minute cycles, although the first heavy overflow I saw was not followed by any activity from the South Rim. From there, spent about 45 minutes at Fan & Mortar, and decided that it was in garbage mode and since it was so soon after the previous eruption, I was wasting my time there.

Found that I can get from the cabin to Fan & Mortar in about seven minutes. Only came close to hitting one person who "had their head up their app". (Old Faithful was in eruption. A whole line of people lined up along the fence along the Inn, except one geezer who had to stand in the middle of the trail to get his selfie, and immediately look at himself in the little screen.) Got there with little time to spare. Didn't drop my pack or get out the raincoat, as by this time Upper Mortar was already having large minor eruptions about a minute apart. After the second minor that I saw, Angle vent looked strange, as if it was in a steamphase, while there was no activity from Gold and only moderate from High. After the third huge minor, when all of Mortar was quiet, suddenly Fan's East Vent kicked in, and then all the vents joined in.

This was the third Fan & Mortar eruption in a row that seemed to come with little warning. The prior activity of Fan did not have the intensity of the previous eruptions, since this time Mortar was dominating. But in each case, there was something about the activity that said that this was not a normal event cycle, and that people needed to be informed.

Following that excitement, went out for a sunset Grand eruption. In the Sawmill Group, the water levels were high enough that Slurp was quiet. Belgian and Crystal were way down, about 6cm.

I believe I saw the Delay eruption when I arrived, as it was a long eruption, and the next Turban interval matched the usual behavior -- no overflow. Also, Turban initiated the eruption, which seems to mostly happen only after a Turban Eruption Delay.

That One Burst Grand eruption was also right at sunset, so the water column of Grand was nicely tinted (and not from smoke) as the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. During the wait, West Triplet also had a short, less than seven minute long eruption, which shut down the other sputs for a bit, but they were back to erupting after the Grand eruption.