geysers.org

Updated: 2018 Jul 19: Added photos of where the signs ended up.

---

It's been a decade since I last spent time in the Bijou Cage in the dark. With all the noise coming from Giant, it can be hard to tell what Bijou is doing. But after a while, I got used to catching the faint sound of Bijou stopping. Caught the end of a Grotto eruption (no Rocket) and then had to wait out the interval until the next Grotto start. Right after that happened, I got the expected weak Feather-only Hot Period. Then it was back in to get some sleep.

Woke up to the sound of rain. Looked at a weather map and it showed that the main band was an hour away. This was all well before I had planned to be out again for the next hot period, one I expected to be really good. So waited where it was dry before heading out. The weather map said that there was another band coming in the next hour, but it never materialized.

Up at Norris, New Crater/Steamboat was starting to look good, so most of the basin was deserted.

At Giant Bijou had a fairly long pause of about 3 minutes just before Grotto started. During that eruption, there were frequent short pauses and slowdowns. After the hour and a half Grotto, which ended with a Rocket eruption, the slowdowns continued for the next hour, until 10:19, when we finally got a true pause. Water appeared in Mastiff within a couple of minutes, but it wasn't until five minutes into the pause before Feather started. The hot period then progressed fairly rapidly, with all the platform vents in action at some point. (At least it seemed that way.) Feather never quit, but did drop as Bijou restarted.

At that point, Giant started surging and Feather rose back to full height. There were several heavy surges in Giant, at least one that looked like it should have been the start of the eruption. But after a couple of minutes, the activity died down. By that time the Bijou cage was full of everyone who hadn't (or couldn't) go to Norris, there was a lot of disappointment. It was the best hot period up to that point, though. So good that Norris gained more gazers willing to make the drive there.

The past few days we have been having alternating hot periods. A good one, like the one we had just witnessed. Then about 6 to 8 hours later there would be a short eruption of just Feather, with none of the other vents in action. The major hot periods were coming about 16 to 22 hours apart. (I'd noticed this sort of pattern during the previous leadup to the 05 July eruption). So my plan was to return to the cage in about 5 hours and wait for the next weak one, then come out in the early morning hours the next day for the hot period that could result in an eruption.

I returned to the cage around 14:00. At 15:38 Grotto erupted. About 20 minutes in, Bijou had a long pause (5m52) where water was visible in Mastiff, but nothing much else happened. Grotto lasted a little over an hour, ending with Rocket. There were no more pauses until almost an hour after Grotto ended, when a similar 6 minute pause happened.

By then, had experienced a short rain shower, for which I wasn't totally prepared. So far, these long pauses were followed by at least an hour of Bijou splashing, so I decided to take advantage and go back to the cabin and be prepared for the next shower.

I arrived back to alternating short pauses and slowdowns until a third long pause two hours after the previous. By now I realized I needed to change plans. It had been nine hours since the hot period, and no minor. No idea how long it might be, or if it would even happen. So I returned one more time to change into my nighttime cold clothes.

About an hour after the previous long pause, Bijou had a sort of intermediate one, lasting 3m40s. With the Southwest Vents active, this was the first activity of the afternoon meriting a radio call. Shortly afterward, Grotto started again.

Then nothing. The first slowdown may have happened about 2-1/2 hours later, but it was hard to tell in the dark. Grotto was still active. At this point I was not about to leave. In years past, this sort of behavior-- Bijou continuously erupting for hours -- was a really good sign of an imminent eruption. (Or at least a major hot period). Grotto not wanting to stop (or be stopped by Rocket) also seemed good.

Suzanne had been at Norris all day, and arrived back at the cabin just as I made the radio call for the pause. Because she had gotten ready for going out in the dark, she decided to continue on to Grand on the chance that I would have gone there for a few Turbans. But I wasn't there, so eventually she bailed out on a long interval and joined me in the Cage. Upon hearing about the Bijou/Grotto behavior, despite the coldness, she didn't want to leave either.

Five minutes before midnight, Bijou finally paused. Grotto was still active. Even with the bright flashlight, we couldn't determine if Mastiff was showing water. After a couple of minutes, the Southwest Vents finally started erupting, and that was good enough to start sending out another radio call. By then it looked like Mastiff was near overflow.

Things started getting a little hectic when Feather started at midnight. Almost immediately its satellite began. Then several of the other platform vents. We could tell that Mastiff was pouring off water, even though we couldn't see what it was doing through the fog. Feather never really tried to stop. Finally, only 6 minutes into the hot period, Giant had a huge surge. Moments later, it had another one, this one up to the top of the cone. The third surge was higher, and didn't stop. Suddenly Giant began to climb, and the eruption started. And the wind direction was toward the cage.

And that's when the real fun began. Because I was trying to take notes and talk into the radio, I was juggling too many different things (radio, phone, notebook, pen, red flashlight). I shoved things into pockets without thinking, then tried to move to a location where I might see something illuminated by the super-powerful flashlight. That's when I remember that we still had our packs and blankets and other stuff still on the benches in the cage. Too late, they were soaked. We moved them well back on the boardwalk, getting drenched in the process, and that when the real horror hit. I couldn't find my phone.

It's hard to enjoy a nighttime eruption when you can only hear it and when you think you have done something incredibly stupid. Instead of trying to watch the eruption, we repeatedly scanned the area looking for the phone without success for far too long. Finally I realized that my watch, tied to the phone, was still working, no matter where I was. That mean I had to be carrying it. I finally realized that it was in a pocket that I have never, ever used for any geyser gazing instrument (just my wallet). My relief finally allowed me to enjoy what was left of the eruption.

The radio call, at least, wasn't a waste of time. Several people heard it and got out to see the start, or got there early in the eruption. Maybe ten or a dozen in all.

The eruption was noisy and wet. The boardwalk as far as Grotto was soaked, as were our bikes tied up on the recently appearing bike rack. The bright flashlight, thanks to an extra battery pack, was the one thing that worked right, as it never dimmed. We were able to see the ending of the eruption pretty well because of it. The Giant sign had rolled well down the runoff, on the far side near to Turtle. The highly reflective "Keep Off" also rolled down several terraces. There was also a bit of the "catfish" or "low tide" smell as more plantlife got cooked.

Grotto quit sometime during the eruption.

For most of the eruption, we didn't feel the cold (and wet). The excitement, despite my problems, took care of that. But we still had to bike back to the cabin. I found that my bike light needed a recharge, so I had to rely on Suzanne's on the way back. In the cabin, we spent the better part of an hour taking apart our packs to dry things out.

That's when the horrible night hit Suzanne. She discovered that her needlepoint instructions (something she hadn't worked on since the previous Giant activity in 2007) had become wet. And so did her phone. It would no longer charge up. (That problem is going to last for a while, as so far all our attempts to fix it haven't worked.)

So while we did see another eruption of Giant, our first in 11 years, it is a bit hard to be happy about the experience. I think it's going to take a daylight eruption, with lots of gazers present, to make this one a bit more bearable, and turn it into something to laugh about.

Another day of getting up early in order to spend the day in the Bijou Cage. It was an overcast day, with lightning in the clouds to the north. Turns out not quite early enough, as the call that a hot period was starting was made as I passed the Inn. It ended up being another of those short, weak ones with only Feather active. So after a while, I headed back in to get a bite to eat and prepare for a long wait.

Which it was. I did manage to fit in a Grand eruption, but otherwise is was a long day of long pauses and Bijou slowdowns. Finally, a bit over twelve hours after the previous hot period, there was another long, vigorous one. It seemed like Giant never really tried hard to erupt, unfortunately, as there were only a few surges that looked like they could sustain and build.

That activity did come at the right time, as a band of thunderstorms was building to the west. Headed back in expecting rain, but we never got any. Just lots of lightning and thunder.

Got out to Giant at 03:15. Grotto was in eruption, and there had been some long Bijou pauses, but no Feather activity. The weak hot period the previous evening may have had an effect, in that the interval here between Giant eruption attempts was almost 22 hours, putting it after dawn. This hot period was even stronger that the one the previous day. This time feature never quit, so there wasn't a really a restart. Cave Vent and a lot of the other sputs were stronger than before, too. But once again, while the surging in Giant was nice, it didn't result in an eruption.

The hot period came at the right time, too. Had come out dressed for the cold and dark, but by then it was clear and rapidly getting warmer. Stripped down as much as possible, but still a bit overdressed for the occasion. The back going back to the cabin was stuffed full of all the nighttime gear, including flashlights. Also, hadn't brought any food, so was really getting hungry.

After another one burst Grand eruption, and lunch, went back to the Bijou Cage. Was thinking that there might be an interesting followup to the hot period. And there was. Wanted to get there for the start of Grotto, but it was already in eruption. But about an hour and a half after I arrived, there was a weak, Feather-only hot period that lasted 1m22s. By that time Grotto had been in eruption about 1h40m, so I went over to see if I could catch the end.

While sitting there, suddenly there was a puff of steam from behind the trees to the north. Not Riverside, but it was Spa. Got down there in time to see that the water was just starting to head down the runoff channel, so what we saw was probably the first burst. Watched the activity there for about an hour. Finally there was a Rocket major eruption, and Grotto shut down. The duration was nearly three hours.

The last activity of the day was supposed to be Grand. It had a short 7m20s first burst, but of course followed that up with a long second burst. Of interest was that Vent and Turban didn't even quit after that. So time to get some sleep.

Wanted to get out in the dark well before dawn to try and catch the next hot period. Didn't work out that way. Instead had just fallen asleep when hear the call that Feather had just started. There wasn't any call about Mastiff being full, so that meant little time to get down basin. I had arranged my gear just in case there was such a call, so was able to quickly get ready and head out. Hearing that Feather was restarted as I passed by the Inn got me moving just a little faster. Got down to the curve by Oblong when I heard that Feather had quit again. So I didn't see anything, but was able to learn that it was possible for me to get from the cabin to a point where I could see the start. (And I learned that I was really overdressed for such concentrated exertion.

Out at dawn to wait for the next Giant Hot Period. I expected it to be late in the morning, but wasn't about to take chances when there was no good reason to not be there. As it turned out, I was pretty much right, as we got the expected hot period at 11:55. As far as I could tell, the only difference from last night was it started a little slower, with Mastiff taking its usual two minutes to rise.

I also skipped the Grand eruption at 10:15. Turns out it had two bursts, which was a bit annoying. I played the odds and lost. But still the right decision, as there no point in seeing yet another one burst Grand in the middle of the day in the middle of a crowd.

Later in the day did go to the Grand eruption. It didn't have an official delay, but the one burst eruption was preceeded by a good 15 to 20 seconds of booping. I really thought that it would fail to erupt, and we'd have to wait several more Turban intervals.

While having dinner, there was a short, weak hot period that wasn't quite expected. Not sure what to make of it, other than a guess that it might delay the next, strong one.

That was about it for the day. Did go to Grotto a little later, trying to see Rocket, but it turned into a long eruption instead, and finally gave up to prepare for tomorrow's Giant wait.

Having Fan & Mortar erupt during the night was disappointing. But the intervals have shortened nicely, and that means several more opportuities this month.

But the day was spent waiting at Giant. There was a weak hot period in the middle of the day, and then a strong one in the early evening. That one was a classic Feather Restart, with lots of nice surging from Giant at that point, some filling the cone. But nothing came of it.

At sunset, Grand had an extremely long Turban interval. It was at least 25 minutes from the time we arrived. During that time Grand booped, and the duration for the Turban eruption was well over 7 minutes. That was right at sunset, and it would have been an eruption with nice rainbows. But Grand managed to delay only one interval, while it was still light.

And then we returned to the cabin just in time for a radio announcement that Beehive's Indicator was in eruption. Turns out no one was out on Geyser Hill, so it was up to the webcam viewers and operators to let people know to get out there. We headed right out, but Beehive was already erupting as we crossed the bridge

Today Grand decided that it needed to put in some longer intervals. Had no intention of going out in the middle of the night, so relieved to discover that would have had to wait a couple of extra hours, until dawn. In the middle of the day the interval was almost as long, which allowed a huge accumulation of people.

Again, another day of waiting for Giant. At least there was a hot period during the night, and then another one near sunset. I didn't see that one, but nice to know that they can happen more than once a day. In this case, appeared to be about 16 to 18 hours between them, which seems to fit the pattern established during the buildup to the last eruption.

Got to see a complete Bulger's Hole eruption and record the whole thing. I'd like to upload the video, but I don't want to use of all my allocation, and the service here is so slow it might take way too long. It'll just have to wait until I get home.

Otherwise, it was another day waiting down by Giant. No hot periods or even bathtubs, just a 6 minute long pause about an hour after the start of Grotto.

The morning had several bits of weirdness while waiting for the dawn Grand eruption. First there was the coyote that wandered past west of the boardwalk at Grand heading for Churn. Then a bit later it was a woman and two young boys visible from Grand on the other bank of the Firehole River. They were investigating one of the warm seeps next to the river, before they headed back to the trail. Mama and her cubs.

Almost immediately there were tourists reporting a real grizzly bear and cub next to the trail just north of Lion. Fortunately, they were not seen again. Do wish they would go elsewhere.

Spent more time down at Giant during the morning, and was rewarded with a long series of Bijou slowdowns every 15 minutes. In the afternoon, it was a long Grotto eruption with more slowdowns

Today had the potential for being a Five Grand Day. It started out nicely with a two burst eruption only 23 minutes after midnight. But the chance slipped away when the second eruption of the day had a two-Turban delay. The third had the type of interval needed. Despite a long delay, Grand erupted on the next Turban for an interval just under six hours.

So we didn't get 5 Grand eruptions, but the eruptions we did get were a nice representation of the good conditions for viewing Grand. The dark nighttime eruption, the dawn eruption, the warm middle of the day eruption, and finally the sunset eruption.

Time to get reacquainted with Giant. Spent a few hours in the Monkey Cage. After a few quick, short pauses, there was 5-1/2 minute bathtub as Grotto started. Then after that, nothing. I was expecting the pause to resume after Grotto ended less than an hour later, but all I got for the next hour were Bijou slowdowns.

First up was Bulger's Hole. It was observed to fill and bubble a bit well into a major eruption of Bulger. After the morning Grand eruption, about 40 minutes later, I saw Bulger erupting again. I got down there and saw that it looked like another major. As we were standing there, the Hole filled with water to about 1 foot below the rim, then started splashing well above the rim. The duration was only a few seconds, and then the hole drained. But Suzanne, Ben Hoppe and I got to see the first activity there since 2011.

I liked to think that this activity is related to the deeper fluctuations in Sawmill Group. A little bit later I noticed that the water level had dropped such that a bank about 10cm wide of the orange slime lining the vent was exposed. This is much more fluctuation than last year, based on how that orange band wouldn't be exposed otherwise. I would hope that this, along with Bulger's Hole, are signs that changes in the Group, and reactivation, are possible this summer.

Then it was the Suicide Bride's turn. Down by South Scalloped a woman in a wedding dress decided to get up close to that spring. I yelled down, and she did get back on the trail. An Asian couple (of course). Turns out I wasn't their first encounter with getting caught. During the wait for Beehive I was told that they'd also been seen wandering loose between Morning and Fountain, and off trail at Midway. If I'd have known, I would've tried to get Law Enforcement involved.

I also need to remember that I do have a camera, and to record stupid incidents like this.

The evening Grand could've gone while it was still light, but it had to have a two Turban delay, resulting in the longest interval in about 10 days. At least there were two bursts, breaking a long string on one burst eruptions.

Arrived for an extended stay during the afternoon after an uneventful drive. It's so much nicer to be able to avoid evening traffic leaving Denver and not having to drive from Moran Jct in the dark. This time that part of the drive was in the early afternoon, and at both checkpoints into Grand Teton and Yellowstone, I managed to get into the fasted moving lanes.

After decompressing the contents of the truck, went out to see Fan & Mortar let us know that it was ready to erupt in the dark, and then a one-burst Grand. Actually kind of nice knowing that nothing much happening for a few days. One thing I found in years past was that for longer stays, there's not the pressure to see everything. There's going to be lots of down time and periods of boredom.

So while here, I will try to post observations and info as I did in years past. May not be everyday, but should be enough items of interest-- New Crater/Steamboat, Giant, Fan & Mortar, and now Sawmill Group?-- to keep from being too repetitious.

Update: 2018 May 30 11:00 Added some more observations on the eruption. Will probably add more later, along with fixes for typos and bad grammar.

---

As we rounded the curve beyond the interchange at about 21:35, Suzanne and I could see Grand erupting. It was almost dark. That would be the last Upper Basin activity we would see until Monday, when we would also finally see the Old Faithful area in daylight.

Over the past few weeks I've been running my AppleTV GeyserLog app in a simulator on my computer's second screen. Mostly as inspiration for the upcoming Yellowstone visits, but also to see how the app is behaving. Got to see the start of a Giant eruption that way earlier this month, and since then all the reports of Giant bathtub events.

So wasn't too surprised to see the YVO report of something happening at Norris a week ago on Friday night. The last few intervals had been around a week, which fit perfectly. Sure there wasn't much data to go on, but this activity, at this distance, reminded us of the activity of 1982-- a sudden winter start, quickly becoming regular about one a week or so.

The problem with that was in 1982 the regularity stopped just as suddenly when there were disturbances in June. The later eruptions in early August and early September required more than looking at the calendar. So as the confirmations came in, it became apparent to Suzanne and I that we were going to be spending a lot of time at Norris during our annual Memorial Day visit. Seize the opportunity to see Steamboat while it was still sorta predictable and regular, as it might not be that way when we will be back in July.

We left Satuirday morning while still dark and arrived at Norris so early that the front rank of the parking lot was completely empty. Arrived at the lower platform at 05:30 and began my first Steamboat wait since 1982. That was over 4 continuous days of waiting for nothing to happen. I finally gave up two days before my vacation ended and headed back to the Upper Basin so I could see something erupt. Steamboat erupted two days after I left for home.

According to my notebook, I left the platform twice over the next 15-1/2 hours. Since Steamboat has no known precursors or indicators, it's hard to leave, especially if seeing the start from the parking lot isn't good enough. The weather forecast said cloudy and cool, but it turned out to be mostly sunny. There was one minor rain-shower scare in the evening, but we didn't encounter any real rain until the drive south of Madison Jct.

I tried setting up an old phone as a camera on a tripod and just letting it run, but after 40 minutes, I'd exhausted half the battery. That wasn't going to work, so I just left the camera pointed at the feature and tried to quickly start it when something interesting happened. That had mixed results, because between the reaction time and the number of button presses need to start recording, I often missed the best part.

As evening approached, we had to start making decisions. We almost left before sunset because of a rain shower. By then the activity had been pretty calm for hours, and based on what we'd seen in previous 1980s sits, we weren't encouraged. An hour after a small surge we decided that we'd had enough and needed to risk heading back to Old Faithful for a few hours of sleep.

Fortunately, we avoided all the traffic problems. During the day a herd of bison were migrating up along the Madison and that was causing mile long backups. As it was, when we arrived at Madison Jct. around 2130, the backup to make the left turn from Old Faithful to West Yellowstone was to the big curve above Firehole Canyon Drive entrance.

The next morning it was a relief to look at GeyserTimes and see no reports, and then to not see a huge steam-cloud as we exited the Gibbon Canyon. We arrived back at Norris at about the same time as the previous day, to the same conditions. The minor play from Steamboat seemed more vigorous, but also knew by then that that was subjective.

The day pretty much proceeded like the previous one. It was actually much nicer than we'd expected, as the weather forecast was calling for showers in the morning, which never occurred. The wind was blowing the steam and spray right toward our platform most of the day. But in the afternoon, the clouds built up, and by 18:00 it was starting to rain. I was in the parking lot at the time, and had to quickly get back to the platform where my rain-gear was still in the pack.

That's when the fun began. Around 19:00 we had another nice, large surge. I'd been noting these on Saturday, but not on Sunday. I wanted to read instead. When the next surge came quickly, I was at least able to record it. As the video shows, these subsequent ones came at around 19:06, 19:08, and 19:12 according to my phone's clock. This was the first time they'd come that close together, and so many of them, too.

But not only that, the activity between the surges seemed stronger. A totally subjective observation, but it really did seem like the geyser had tired of jerking us around and was now going to reward us.

After the third surge, I realized that it might be useful to alert those in the parking lot that something different was happening. My radio was buried, but Linda Strasser was able to make a quick report that enabled a few people to at least be headed back when the eruption began. In future waits, I think it important to announce these surges. It may be Guru Geyser Gazing to think they matter, but we haven't much else to go on. If nothing else, it will give people a heads up and that it's time to at least pay attention to that direction and maybe start getting ready to run.

As the video shows, the fifth surge got big fast, and stayed that way. Unlike the previous ones, I didn't catch the dying moments, but instead it was continuing to build. It seemed obvious that this was different, and the video shows that. With 15 or 20 seconds, there was no doubt that we were at least going to see one of the USGS's "minor major" eruptions. (More on that later.)

The first minute or so the water columns for both vents were white, but then the North Vent turned a rusty brown and started throwing rocks. I'm assuming that's how long it takes for the runoff on the slope to turn into a flood and start getting kicked back up. I think the buzzword is "sustainable." It took about a minute for the dry runoff channel in front of the platform to fill with water the color of glacial runoff.

The water phase lasted much longer than I expected, and was much louder, too. On the platform shouting was required if you wanted to say anything. When the steam phase transition began, it got even louder. I could feel the platform vibrating through my feet. The North Vent water steam column was white again.

Around this time, the wind finally shifted so that the platforms were getting doused by the condensation from the stem plumes. This rainfall was gritty and milky. It would be interesting to find out if that is because of the chemistry of the water, or because of fine particles being washed into the vent and ejected up with the steam cloud.

The colors and heights of the water column also kept changing. In the early part of the water phase it seemed that the South Vent was the one more likely to be brown, while later it was the North Vent that was a rich brown. Approaching the time of the transition to steam, it also seemed like the North Vent was no longer a continuous jetting to great height, but was bursting as if the water was trying to force its way through a pool of water. (To use the obvious cliché, think Grand.)

I suspect all this is not due to any deep activity, but because of water washing back into the vents. Behavior which is dependent on the amount of water and the wind direction, As the transition begins, the water supply decreases and stops blocking the vents. The same for the start, at first there's little to no water washing downhill from the north and east, so both columns are tall, continuous and clean.

What I wonder about is the source of all the grit we experienced during the steam phase. Is it from down deep, or more of the stuff washing in? I want to suspect it's the latter. Note that the mound between the vents and the platform is eroding away, exposing small bounders cemented in place by white material. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that this cement is the grit. (Suzanne has some thoughts about the changes in the formations since the 1980s that she plans to publish soon.)

The eruption came at a perfect time, considering the other possibilities. Because it was shortly after a rain, most people were fairly well waterproofed, more than if it had erupted a few hours earlier. Once the eruption started, I would not have wanted to be digging around in my pack for what I needed. (Or frantically shoving things into the pack to keep them dry.)
It wasn't that cold or damp either, so most of the time the eruption wasn't obscured behind fog and mist. It was long enough before sunset so that the entire water phase and the first hour of steam were easily visible. We left as it started getting dark, and didn't feel like we were being cheated.

After we returned to the Old Faithful area, it was time for a celebration and to view our videos. The Bear Pit was an ideal location, as our noisy videos wouldn't disturb our cabin neighbors. As we returned from there, just after midnight, Old Faithful erupted. We gave it the attention we normally do, and kept on walking, despite it being the only other geyser we'd seen since we woke up.

The next day I did a quick run down the basin to take a look at the Giant platform. I got a three minute Bijou pause for my efforts. Grand did not erupt before the time we'd decided to leave, but it did manage to erupt as we were about to leave the parking lot.

---

There were some differences between the activity during the wait and what I saw 36 years ago. Most notable was the amount of water being put out. Back then, the only time we saw any discharge down the runoff channel was after a superburst or similar large surges. This time the flow down was continuous, with frequent surges from even minor South Vent activity.

There never really was any progression of function as we saw back then. In the half hour leading up to the eruption, I was watching the activity, which as almost entirely South Vent surging. Even between the big surges, which were the only Combined function I remember seeing. (And the first surge may even been a South function.)

Even so, there were times when it could be felt that the activity was higher or lower than normal. We managed to escape several times for food and pit breaks and only once did we miss any sort of surge event.

---

When does an eruption of Steamboat start? As the video shows, there's not a point where it suddenly bursts up and you can say, "this is it". It just keeps climbing. Suzanne and I agreed that it's the start of the surging. Use the same procedure as used for timing Old Faithful. If the surging doesn't turn into an eruption, you just click the stopwatch. If it does, then you have your start time. The video clip of the eruption starts at 19:15:57, after the surging had started.

---

One thing that really bothered me is hearing about the attitude of the YVO professionals concerning Steamboat. It appears that they are either not doing a good job of explaining what is going on, or they are passing around bad information. They are also basing way to much of what they say on instrument readings. Readings they have never seen before, and therefor have no idea what they actually mean, other than, "something different" happened. The proper interpretation would be "we don't know, yet,", instead we were getting talk like "minor major event" and water phases that only lated a minute or two.

I pointed out on several occasions that there was no way that statement could be made. Until the start of an eruption, and the subsequent start of water phase were witnessed, they just didn't know what happened. You can't interpret the size of the activity based on erosion or runoff because that is weather and wind dependent. (For example, the parking lot didn't get drenched.)

I also see that they put out info that the eruption started at 19:33. From direct observation we know that's when the transition to steam started. Now that they have some information they can use to interpret their seismograph traces they need to correct that start time, and add disclaimers to the other start times. (Like adding "ie" to them.) I will be pleasantly surprised if they do that any time soon.

---

Update: 2018 Jun 01 I noticed that the video has been linked by at least one non-gazer site. Those people seem put off by the screaming, and have the need to display their feeble wit in action. So on the hosting site I added, for me, a polite response:

I've noticed that some people linking to this feel a need to comment on the screaming. Let me put it mildly-- Those weren't tourists screaming. You commenters are the tourists. I didn't post this video for you. I posted it for those people who did the screaming (and there were quite a few) and for those people who wanted to be there adding to the screaming. If you don't understand why those people couldn't contain their enthusiasm, then please, stay away and leave the place for people who do.