Notes and Observations on Geysers in Yellowstone and Elsewhere
GeyserLog 3.4.2 is now available on the iOS AppStore. This should fix a problem with the display of detail records within the Recents View of features with predictions. It also adds some functionality supporting the editing of pending Eruption and Note records.
Recently Cynthia Barwin noticed a listing on eBay.com. Since she wasn't interested in bidding, I went and acquired this stereo photo. The image is taken from the listing, as I currently have no good way to scan it. A notation on the Kodachrome slide mount implies that it was taken at 10:50.
The names and labels used are based on several maps and sources, some of which disagree.
GeyserLog 3.4.1 is now available on the iOS AppStore. This is mostly a bugfix release, with no new functionality.
If you'd like to use this app, contact me and I can provide a promo code for a free download.
In Hokitika, on the South Island's West Coast, one branch of the New Zealand national railroad ends at a major dairy. There was a daily train going there the three nights we stayed there, coming in while dark in the morning, leaving in the late afternoon.
At Arthur's Pass is a passenger station at the line's summit, where westbound trains go into the Otira Tunnel. The tunnel is 8.5km long with a 3% downgrade , so there are helpers added and removed here. One freight train is a unit train carrying coal from west coast mines to a power plant near Christchurch. Not sure what the other is carrying.
Standard gauge on all New Zealand railroads is 3'6", which over a foot narrower than the North American standard of 4'8.5". This allows for tighter curves and shorter crossties. Much of the North Island line is electrified. By accident we stopped at a rest area where there was a monument to the "golden spike" location.
Finally, the video ends with a quick view of the Raurimu Spiral on the North Island near National Park. It's where the main line crosses over itself above a tunnel, then continues on through reversing horseshoe curves. Not much is actually visible due to the geography and plant life, and the road to get to that location is a bit rough at the end. Never did see any rail traffic on the North Island lines, and the place we stayed at Raurimu, while near enough to the railroad at the bottom of the Spiral to hear it, didn't have a view.
Nothing thermal here. Just found the behaviors of this mob of at least 18 juvenile kea to be interesting and entertaining.
Behind the building, someone left scraps of what appeared to be potatoes, carrots or kumara, which may be what attracted them. For reasons of their own, they returned to this building the next morning.
Despite the wide open doors and windows, never saw any of them enter the building.
Their habit of prying at the nails in the roofs in this area is a problem, because most of these buildings are a century old, dating back to when the Otira Tunnel (8.5km long) was being built. (It opened in 1923.) Roofing materials, including nail heads, contained lead back then, and some kea have shown signs of lead poisoning.
Videos:
Observation reports:
Other, non-thermal videos: