A Bimonthly Publication of The Geyser Founded September 12 ... · be. But they told us about your organi-zation and they felt certain you’d be able to identify it. We would certainly

A Bimonthly Publication of The GeyserObservation and Study Association

Founded September 12, 1988

August 2009Volume 23, Number 4

Letter from the PresidentLetters to and from the EditorsGeyser Gazer NewsGOSA Store NewsCelebrating an Old Faithful Area

Seventieth AnniversaryActivity of Selected Geysers --

Early Summer 2009 Season

Fan and Mortar Starts in the 2000S

Observations and Comments on Selected Geysers,Late June 2009

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That--Comparative Activity of Selected GeysersBefore and After the 1959 Hebgen Lake Earthquake

June and Early July 2009 Geyser Activity

by Dan Miller

Giantess Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, July 6, 2009

The Geyser Gazer SputVol. 23, No. 4

2

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTby Mike Keller

The Geyser Gazer SputThe Newsletter of The

Geyser Observation and StudyAssociation

The Geyser Gazer Sput (ISSN 1524-5497) ispublished bimonthly for $20 per year by The GeyserObservation and Study Association, 39237Yellowstone Street, Palmdale, CA 93551-4155. Non-Profit Periodicals Postage Paid At Palmdale, CA.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: TheGeyser Gazer Sput, 39237 Yellowstone Street,Palmdale, CA 93551-4155.

Volume 23, Number 4June 2009

©2009 GOSA, All Rights ReservedISSN 1524-5497

Send submissions/comments to:Tom and Genean Dunn6965 El Camino Real, Suite 105 #463Carlsbad, CA. 92009(760) 415-7992, or send to [email protected] [email protected]

For Geyser Gazer Sput subscriptionsand information contact:GOSA39237 Yellowstone St.Palmdale, CA. [email protected]

Editors: Tom and Genean Dunn

Geyser Gazer News: Bob Berger

Geyser News: Tara Cross-MonteithBen Hoppe

Production Manager: Udo Freund

Transactions Editors: Jeff Cross315 Highland Park DriveCollege Place, WA 99324

Tara Cross MonteithPat Snyder

Transaction Editors can be reached at:[email protected]

Website: www.gosa.org

Greetings again from Yellowstone!I hope the summer has treated you welland that you have been able to make itto Yellowstone by now to spend sometime with your favorite geysers. If not, Ihope you will be making a visit in thenear future.

The deadline for submission ofarticles for our next edition of theGOSA Transactions has passed, and oureditors, with the help of severalvolunteers willing to review articles, arecurrently working on piecing togetherour current edition. We are still aimingto have volume XI published by the endof the calendar year, with a call forpapers for volume XII taking placeearly in 2010. The editors continue totell me that they are excited about thematerials they have received towardsour next Transactions. If you areinterested in assisting with the reviewof articles, please contact Tara Cross,Jeff Cross, or Pat Snyder for furtherinformation. As the majority of articlesfor the Transactions are submitted bythe geyser gazer community, I would

like to remind everyone to considersubmitting articles in the future for theTransactions.

Our annual GOSA Board Meetingwill be taking place on August 1st. I willhave an update on the matters dis-cussed in my next President’s Letter.

I wanted to pass along my thanksagain to Don Might for managing theGOSA website. We have recentlyextended our domain name for ourwebsite. If you haven’t had an opportu-nity, please check it out atwww.gosa.org.

The Madison to Norris roadworkcontinues to progress. I wanted to passalong another reminder that this roadwill close for the season on August 17th

for the remainder of the fall, but willreopen for the winter in mid-December.

I hope you have been able to get toYellowstone already this summer. It wasgreat seeing everyone over the July 4th

holiday, and I look forward to meetingthe “fall crowd” in August, over LaborDay weekend, and into October.

The big news on July 6, 2009 was the early morning eruption of Giantess Geyser,Upper Geyser Basin

by Dan Miller


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LETTERS TO THE EDITORSby Tom and Genean DunnWe received a request from visitors

to help identify the geyser and locationof this photo. “Greetings from Boze-man, Montana. I got your email addressfrom a Ranger at Old Faithful. Theattached picture was taken at a Yellow-stone geyser in 1956. I do not knowwhich geyser it is. My wife and I talkedwith two Rangers at Old Faithful whohave each worked in the Park for 35years. Neither knew which one it mightbe. But they told us about your organi-zation and they felt certain you’d beable to identify it. We would certainlyappreciate any information you couldgive us. My family was on a vacation toYellowstone that summer from NorthCarolina and I was six years old! Iwould love to return to this exactlocation.

We sent the picture to the list serve.Mike Keller summed up the consensus,“The geyser in the photo is Clepsydra.Jelly Geyser is the feature in thebackground. This photo was taken pre-1959 (before the Hebgen Lake Earth-quake), when Clepsydra was a truegeyser erupting at 3-ish minute inter-vals. The remains of this boardwalk canstill be found around Clepsydra.”

Mystery Photo from 1956:We sent this information to the

visitors and received the followingnote:

“To Tom and GeneanSubject: Re: Yellowstone geyserDate: Wed, 01 Jul 2009

Please forgive us in our tardiness inresponding to you folks! THANK

YOU so much for your willingness tohelp us find “our” geyser!!! Indeed it isClepsydra. We regularly go into thePark and last week we made a specialtrip to check out Clepsydra!! It was surefun to see the geyser that is pictured inour family photo taken in 1956. Pleasethank Mike Keller also for us.

Charles and Diane Stamey

from the Charles and Diane Stamey Collection

June 3, 2009

Tom and Genean,

I have a comment on an article in theJune 2008 of The Geyser Gazer Sput.The article was “ July 19, 1999 -- A Dayto Remember” by Andrew Hafner. Ienjoyed his telling of his day’s activitiesamong geysers. I am a novice geysergazer who spends 3 days in July at theUpper Geyser Basin. Please let Andrewknow that his article was very entertain-ing. I do not have a computer or Emailaddress.

Thank you,Ron BelakPS I just read his article today. The

issue was deep in a large stack ofmagazines.

June 20, 2009

Thank you to everyone who helpedput together and publish the June Sput.

When I sent abbreviated versionsof the April and May logbooks to Tara,I must have made a mistake on the OldFaithful times for May 2. (I didn’t domy normal mechanical screening forerrors. Next time I won’t send anythingout before I’ve thoroughly checked iteven if it means a deadline is missed.)Thankfully the electronic logbookposted on the GOSA website is correct.Intervals of Old Faithful on May 2 were87, 100, 92, 93, 89, 97, and 91 minutes.There have been days recently whentwo and even three “short” durationeruptions have been recorded, but no33 minute interval.

Please accept my apologies for theerror!

The electronic gremlins must haveinvaded my Hebgen Lake article. Ichecked my file and the duplicatedparagraph in the Sput article was not inthe file I attached to the email I sent toTom and Genean. At least the gremlinsdidn’t eat the complete file as happenedto me recently on another project.

Lynn Stephens


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by Bob BergerGEYSER GAZER NEWS

NEW FRIENDS OF THE GEYSERS

We have no new FROGs to welcome this time:—

TADPOLE BIRTHDAYSIan Durrant, September 8th, age 10; favorite geyser: EchinusKeturah Dunn, September 22nd, age 5, not selected yetMalakai Dunn, September 25th, age 8, not selected yet

No NEWTs this time:

And finally the adult FROGs:Destiny Nieto, August 19thLisa Freund, August 20th; favorite geysers: Splendid and TiltKristian Wang, August 22nd; favorite geyser: PentaBarry Leedy, August 30th; favorite geyser: DaisyDebbie Glasser, September 4th; favorite geysers: Grand and FountainRhonda Pfaff, September 5th; favorite geyser: Pink ConeDaniel Uhlhorn, September 7thSarah Dunn, September 10th; favorite geyser: GrandAnn Griffin, September 12thEric Freund, October 1st; favorite geyser: BeehiveRon Pline, October 3rdMarry Miller, October 18thChristopher Dunn, October 19th, favorite geyser: Morning

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALL!!!

If any of you tadpoles or tadpole keepers would like any information updated(favorite geysers) or corrected (ages, dates, spellings), let me know, and I’ll updatethe database. Also, please send information about tadpoles I’m not listing, butshould.

—Finally, please send gazer related information for “Gazer News” to

Bob Berger6309 Sundown RoadNine Mile Falls, WA 99026Phone (509) 276-7272E-Mail: [email protected]

LETTER FROMTHE EDITORS

by Tom and Genean Dunn

We are so appreciative of all ourcontributors! We now have a library ofgood photos -- but don’t stop sendingthem!! -- that we can select to fit theneeds of the articles. For example, wemight need a horizontal photo of onegeyser and a vertical of another. Beingable to chose from cds sent by AndrewHafner, Ben Hoppe, Dave DeWitt,Graham Meech, Pat Snyder and DaveWhinery is most helpful. Others like LCand Nellie Daugherty, Dan and TrishaMiller, and Scott Bryan responded toour request for photos of the Giantesseruption. We now also have access toMike Newcomb’s online photos, but weare still trying to work out a system tofind and select what we need fromonline photos.

Of course, our authors alwaysreceive our thanks!! Mike Keller forkeeping us up on GOSA news, UdoFreund for updating us onthe GOSAstoreBob Berger for reporting on usgazers, and Tara Cross and our newestregular contributor Ben Hoppe whoprovide us with a summary of geyseractivity. They all give us the backboneof each issue. This issue brings anarticle by Janet Chapple, 2 by LynnStephens, one by Andrew Hafner, andan additional article by Tara Cross.Thank you all!!

Keep up the contributions!!

Many of you have used theGOSA Store website to renew yoursubscriptions and buy items online. Weappreciate your continued support andhope the experience was quick and,other than the dent to your credit cardbalance, fairly painless. Nearly half ofrecent purchases were made with creditcards but, of course, checks willcontinue to be accepted. We will nolonger print the Order Forms that havebeen a regular feature in this publicationfor many years. The reasons are many

GOSA STORENEWS

by Udo Freund

and suffice to say the details are prettyboring. Please visit the online Store viathe www.gosa.org website button.Internet access is available at any locallibrary if you don’t have access athome. You may also request an OrderForm be sent to you. If you have anyquestions or comments simply drop usa note at: GOSA Store, 39237 Yellow-stone Street, Palmdale, CA 93551-4155,call 661 266-4955 or [email protected]. We’d love to hearfrom you.


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A year or so ago I realized thatthe summer of 2009 would markseventy years since I first spent asummer season in Yellowstone.Something to celebrate! I told myself.Since a large part of the memories ofmy four summers in the park as a smallchild center around Old Faithful Villageand its geysers, I thought perhaps Sputreaders would be interested in myexperiences from 1939 to 1942. I alsoinvited a few old friends for a day-longcelebration in the Old Faithful area inlate July.

A longer version of these memoirswas written at the instigation of ParkHistorian Lee Whittlesey and ispreserved in the library of the Yellow-stone Heritage and Research Center.

Living within Sight of OldFaithful Geyser

Residing in Billings, MT, myparents both made their livings as musicteachers when I was a small child. Inthe summers they found jobs nearYellowstone Park, including managingthe 320 Ranch in the Gallatin Canyonone year and working in the office ofthe Gallatin Gateway Inn another.Around 1937 and for either one or twosummers, they ran the “Gallatin Camp”way station to service the park buses

that brought Yellowstone visitors fromGallatin Gateway Inn to the WestEntrance.

From looking through the Yellow-stone Park Company payroll books heldat Yellowstone’s archives, my sisterJoan Orvis and I learned that my father,L. Worth Orvis, was employed asAssistant Transportation Agent for OldFaithful Inn in 1939, and that headvanced to be Transportation Agent in1940. We were surprised to be re-minded that we stayed at Old Faithful,not just in 1941, but also in 1942, whenthe war had begun to cut drastically intopeople’s summer vacation habits.

I cannot remember which eventsand impressions took place in whichyears, except that 1939 was quitedifferent from the others. I believe westayed in one of the tourist cabins thatyear in the group of cabins that wereeast and south of the ranger station/museum, long since torn down.

The main difference for us in 1939was that that summer Mother (MargaretInabnit Orvis) played in a small musicalgroup they called the Ladies’ Ensemble.That was a group of musicians fromBillings, probably organized byMelville Moss. She was a daughter ofthe P. B. Moss who was a prominent

and wealthy Billings banker. The Mossfamily sandstone house was the mostelaborate dwelling in our town and isnow open for public tours.

Melville played string bass and alsoharp, but I think she left the harp athome. Other members of the ensemblewere Jean Todd, viola, Mary Vaughan,clarinet (if I remember correctly), andElsie Spencer, violin. Mother was thepianist when they played for tea in theafternoons, and she hastily learned toplay the drums so she could be part ofthe dance band in the evenings. Therewas a sixth lady who covered the pianopart for dancing: Marguerite Behrendt.

The first five women I named areimmortalized in a picture I found inabout 1998, while researching forYellowstone Treasures. I was readingthe June, 1940 issue of the NationalGeographic in my local library. Thereon page 777 (plate III) is a picture ofMorning Glory Pool with eight people.Five of those were members of theLadies’ Ensemble, the one seated at theright being my mother and next to herElsie Spencer, a good family friend andJoan’s violin teacher. Imagine myamazement in finding my mother in anold Geographic!

While the musicians rehearsed inthe Inn during the quiet time of latemorning, Joan and I would sometimesmake the halls our playhouse, hidingfrom each other and trying to beinvisible to the maids.

The Ladies’ Ensemble did not playfrom the “Crow’s Nest” near the top ofthe lobby as some musical groups did.Naturally, they could not hoist a pianoup there, so they set up near thefireplace. I believe that at that timethere was no depressed floor areaaround the fireplace—the floor wasrestored in 2006.

For only that first summer did westay in a tourist cabin; the other yearswe had a room in the bunkhouse. It wasa long narrow building divided intosmall rooms that primarily housed busdrivers for the Yellowstone Park

CELEBRATING AN OLD FAITHFUL AREASEVENTIETH ANNIVERSARY

by Janet Chapple, Author of Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler’s Companion to the National Park

from Janet Chapple Photo Collection

Yellowstone bus at Gallatin Camp way station, 1937. Janet is on the right,her sister Joan is in the center and her cousin Judy on the left.


6

Company. As I recall there were four tosix doorways on each long side of thebuilding. In our room, which, I think,had a window on one or both sides ofthe door, there was just room for twodouble beds, one or two chairs, and asmall table with a wash basin and somesort of one- or two-burner cookingelement, where Mother improvisedmeals for three, since Daddy ate withthe other employees. A chamber potwas kept under one bed. I believe wehad two such rooms one of those years.

The bunkhouse was located behindthe ranger station and away from theback door of the Inn, an area now partof the big west parking lot. I was happyto find the exact location of it on a mapof Old Faithful’s buildings from aboutthe 1950s. It had been torn down bythen so is indicated by dotted lines onthe map. I snapped a digital photo of itduring Lee Whittlesey’s, June 2006Southern Park History class.

Calling Old Faithful Inn OurHome

Some of my most vivid memoriescenter around the Inn. We spentrelatively little time inside the lobby, infact, I believe Mother made sure thatwe were never in the way of the touristsor of the employees of the Inn. But Iremember that occasionally a bellhopwould pop some corn in an oversizedcorn popper, cooking it in the fire that

was often lit in the huge stone fireplace.A few times during our summers in thepark, we were taken up the many stairsto the top of the lobby and out to theroof. I remember the many flags alwayssnapping in the wind and the uniquetwo-person wicker chairs, shaped likean S lying down. From the roof I saw anOld Faithful Geyser nighttime eruptionlit by the Inn’s spotlight a few times,

but the illumination usually took placetoo late for us little ones to stay up. Itwas thrilling to see.

Another item of Inn furniture thatmade a big impression on me was thedesks on the balconies. Joan and Iwould often sit at these and play—orperhaps she would read to me by thelight of the center lamp. The desks therenow are not the originals designed byRobert Reamer, but they are verysimilar to those I remember.

Sometimes we would watch Daddyas he got out his large red megaphoneand called out the names of people whowere to ride in the big yellow buses. Iremember feeling that he was a veryimportant person indeed with thatresponsibility.

Returning to the Inn many yearslater, I realized that the area aroundDaddy’s transportation office had beenchanged. Where you now find a largewindow and the porters’ stand was adoor to the back of the Inn and theplace where we could find Daddyduring working hours. I am sure thechange to having the back door aroundthe corner where it is now located wasto improve traffic flow in that corner ofthe Inn.

by National Geographic Magazine

The Ladies Ensemble of Billings at Morning Glory Pool,National Geographic Magazine, June 1940, Volume 77, page 777.

Old Faithful Village map, center section, 1950s. The bunkhouse was the smallbuilding SW of the museum and amphitheater, marked “YPCO,” on the map.


7

Other Old Faithful Area Memo-ries

Joan was a life-long games person,becoming a fine contract bridge playerand a tournament Scrabble player in herlater years, besides making games outof every chore in her life—includingthe routines she recommended to herpiano pupils. She could make a gameout of anything, including something assimple as balancing on the logs thatsurrounded the Old Faithful RangerStation and Museum. We would collectstate names on license plates to see ifwe could find at least one car from eachof the then-forty-eight states. And weplayed lots of card games and boardgames, too.

As often as Mother would allow it,we would go into the museum to moseyaround and talk to the rangers. One ofthe rangers called us “Dimples,” andperhaps he was the same one who gaveus a copy of Cubby in Wonderland byFrances Joyce Farnsworth and signed it:From Ben Lundquist, 1942. We lovedthat book and its sequel, CubbyReturns. Some years ago I read thosebooks to my grandsons.

I remember the specimens of parkrocks in the museum and the samples ofplant matter such as the cones andneedles from the different evergreens ofthe park. There were a few small stuffedanimals. I think there was a largestuffed bear, too, but I’m not sure aboutthat. I would have stayed well awayfrom it.

I also remember the model of ageyser, but I don’t think I ever saw itworking. (I have read somewhere thatJack Haynes built a geyser model, andperhaps it is still in the archives, but ina copy of Yellowstone Nature Notesdated July 30, 1926, I also found areference to models made by ChiefNaturalist Ansel F. Hall and placed atOld Faithful and Mammoth.) In myopinion, such a model would be a muchmore instructive and delightful item tohave in the planned Old Faithful VisitorEducation Center than all the computer-ized interactive things I expect them toput there. However, it would requireprecious man- (or woman-) hours tokeep it functioning.

The Old Faithful Museum and Ranger Station, Haynes Guide 1953

In back of the ranger station andmuseum was an amphitheater with ascreen (now part of the huge westparking lot). I don’t remember thepictures shown on the screen or thesubjects of the rangers’ talks giventhere, but I do remember well the sing-alongs that always ended the evenings. Iknow we sang “Home on the Range”and “She’ll Be Comin’ Round theMountain,” and many others, but myfavorite was the song about the states,which had innumerable verses like:

“Oh, what did Ida hoe, boys / Oh,what did Ida hoe? (these two linesrepeated twice)

I ask you now as a personal friend /Oh, what did Ida hoe?

She hoed her Mary land, boys / Shehoed her Mary land. (repeated)

I tell you now as a personal friend /She hoed her Mary land.”

I marveled that so many of thestates’ names could be made into otherwords this way.

Our local world was bounded by theInn, the bunkhouse, the museum, andthe geyser, but I remember that afavorite place where Joan and I playedwas around the bridge over the FireholeRiver behind the geyser. To this day Iam strongly attracted to that spot, and Ialways spend a little time there early inthe morning when I visit Old Faithful.

GeysersThe bunkhouse room we slept in

faced Old Faithful Geyser. Of course,we watched it often, but we rarely wentclose. I do not know whether otherpredictable geyser eruptions wereposted in those days, and we never wentto wait for Grand or Riverside. I seefrom George Marler’s Inventory ofThermal Features of the Firehole RiverGeyser Basins that Grand’s averageeruption interval was something like 38hours in those years, so of course it wasnot the same as in recent years.

Two geysers we did see quite oftenwhen I got to live at Old Faithful wereGreat Fountain and Lone Star, bothaccessible by road in those days. Wewould take a lunch and a book or ourgame of Parcheesi and drive out northor south to wait for these geysers toerupt. It seems to me we would oftenhave them to ourselves.

The most thrilling geyser-viewingexperience I can remember was beingroused in the night to drive over to seeGiant erupt. Daddy took me on hisshoulders so I could see over the crowd.Somehow, the group excitement mademore of an impression than the actualeruption! According to the MarlerInventory, the first half of the 1940swas a relatively quiet time for Giant, soI was privileged to be there at an


8

eruption. And the next time I got to seeone was on July 3, 2006—again with alot of excited viewers.

Besides going to Lone Star or GreatFountain geysers, we often visitedBiscuit or Midway geyser basins. Iremember that the surrounding “bis-cuits” at Sapphire Pool were outstand-ing; they were destroyed when the pool

erupted after the 1959 Hebgen Lakeearthquake.

I now realize how extremelyfortunate I was to spend so much timeduring formative years in the magicenvironment of Yellowstone. It is ironicthat one of the most potentially danger-ous places in the world—the Yellow-

stone Caldera—is also, if one takessensible precautions, one of the safest.Our months in the park were some ofthe most benign and happy of my life.No doubt this is why in my later years Ihave become thoroughly engrossed inlearning and writing about the park Ilove.

ACTIVITY OF SELECTED GEYSERS—EARLY SUMMER 2009 SEASONby Lynn Stephens

Most of the analysis contained inthis report is based on data collected bymyself between May 21 and early July,2009. I’ve included some historicalinformation from 1969 from George D.Marler’s “Hot Spring Activity In TheGeyser Basins Of The Firehole RiverFor The 1969 Season.” Comparativedata, where available, for 1959, theyear of the Hebgen Lake Earthquakewill be presented in the “Activity ofSelected Geysers—Late Summer 2009Season” article that will appear in theOctober issue of The Sput.

Some of the analysis is supple-mented by information from the OldFaithful Visitor Center (OFVC)logbook. Thank you to all the peoplewho take time to enter information intothe logbook to make it available foranalysis. Thank you also to the NPSand Henry Heasler for providingelectronic monitors on selected geysers,to GOSA for providing financialassistance to purchase the monitors, andto Ralph Taylor for calculating starttimes and intervals and posting hisanalysis on the GOSA website atgeyserstudy.org.

Grand Geyser—Characteristicsof Eruptions

Thank you to all who contributeddata to the log book, primarily MaryBeth Schwarz, to make this analysispossible. Thank you also to others whoreport characteristics of the eruptionover the radio or submit that informa-tion to Mary Beth or myself so we canplace the information in the logbook.

Characteristics of eruptions ofGrand Geyser for April 17, 2009through June 30, 2009 and for April 13,2008 through July 10, 2008 are shownin Table 1. The proportion of eruptions

initiated by Grand continues to de-crease such that fewer than 15% of theeruptions were initiated by Grand fromApril 17 through June 30, 2009. Therehas been an increase in the proportionof eruptions where Vent & Turbancontinued after Grand, with Vent &Turban continuing after 51.5% of theeruptions.

The average number of burstsdeclined from 1.52 to 1.50.

Marler included this informationrelated to Grand’s eruptive characteris-tics in his 1969 report:

“On June 2nd Grand wasobserved erupting on a differentpattern from anything previouslyrecorded since it was first observedby the Hayden Survey in 1871.During the years I have observedGrand the average eruption haslasted from 15 to 17 minutes, duringwhich there were from 7 to 13bursts. Some seasons the average

number of bursts would vary two ormore than during other seasons.There have been short periods whenas many as 15 to 17 bursts would berecorded. On one occasion in 1947 Iobserved an eruption that lasted foran hour and a half, during whichthere were 44 major bursts.

On June 2nd an eruption wasobserved that had but two bursts.The first one lasted for 11 minutesand was characterized by continu-ous jetting of water from 75 to 100feet in height. After a brief pause amajor burst occurred, terminatingthe eruption.

The above pattern of activitycontinued for the remainder of theseason. During the first 10 daysfollowing June 2 a number of 2 bursteruptions were observed. Since mid-June the number of bursts has variedbetween 3 and 5, with the first burstlasting from 8 to 10 minutes.”

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics—Characteristics of Eruptions of Grand Geyser for 2008 and 2009

4/17/09 – 6/30/09 4/20/08 – 7/10/08Initiating Geyser

Grand 14.3% (13) 18.3% (16)Turban 85.7% (78) 81.6% (71)

Vent & TurbanContinue 51.5% (48) 47.7% (42)Quit 48.9% (46) 52.3% (46)

Number of Bursts1 55.2% (53) 53.3% (48)2 39.6% (38) 41.1% (37)3 5.2% ( 5) 5.6% (5)

Total (96) (90)

Average per eruption 1.50 1.52


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Note that it appears the June 2,1969 eruption was the first two-bursteruption that Marler had ever seen.Now one-burst eruptions account formore than 50% of the eruptions, two-burst eruptions account for 45% of theeruptions, and three-burst eruptionsaccount for only 5% of the eruptionsand it’s been a long time since therewas a five-burst eruption.

Marler’s average, maximum, andminimum intervals for the 1969 seasonand Ralph Taylor’s mean, maximum,and minimum intervals for 2009 areshown in Table 2.

Grand’s average interval in 2009 of8 hours 44 minutes is much shorter thanthe average interval of about 10 hoursfor 1969. The range of about 4½ hoursin 2009 is also shorter than the range in1969, which peaked at 6¾ hours in themonth of June. Although Grand iserupting more frequently now than itdid in 1969, Grand is also having fewerbursts now than it did then. I have notlocated data on the 1969 burst averageso have been unable to computewhether the number of bursts that couldbe seen in a 24 hour period is greater orless in 2009 than it was in 1969.

Table 2: Table of Grand’s Activity for the 1969 and 2009 Seasons

Time Frame Number Averageof (Mean) Maximum MinimumIntervals Interval Interval Interval

June, 1969 68 9h51m 15h08m 8h22m

July, 1969 74 9h51m 12h30m 8h41m

Week ended 19 9h15m 11h09m 6h28m6/30/2009

Month ended 82 9h07m 11h09m 6h28m6/30/2009

2009 Season 373 8h44m 13h12m 6h22m

by LC Daugherty

Grand Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin,July 2009

Cliff GeyserData for Cliff Geyser is determined

by timing from one “full pool” eruptionto the next “full pool” eruption. Data

collection at Cliff was carried out onMay 22, May 31, June 6, 17, and 23.Table 3 shows data for intervals anddurations for the total summer of 2007,data collected on June 25, 2008, anddata for observations to date for 2009.

The mean interval continued todecrease, dropping from 51 minutes in2007 to 44 minutes on June 25, 2008,and to 37 minutes for observations todate in 2009. The range, which was 98minutes in 2007, dropped to 28 minutesfor June 25, 2008, and to 23 minutes todate in Summer 2009.

In his 1969 report, Marler lists Cliffas “active” but does not provide anyinformation about intervals or dura-tions. In his Inventory of Thermal

Features Along the Firehole River(1972), Marler wrote that, with theexception of 1963 and 1967, during the1960’s Cliff’s eruptions occurred about2 or 3 times per week. This indicatesCliff is much more active now than itwas during the 1960s.

Atomizer GeyserAtomizer’s mean interval during the

early part of the 2009 summer season is15h07m for 5 closed intervals, and15h10m for 5 closed intervals, 5 doubleintervals, 4 triple intervals, 1 quadrupleinterval, and one set of observationsthat presumably covered six intervals.The minimum closed interval is13h20m and the maximum closedinterval is 17h34m.

Table 3: Cliff Geyser Comparative Data for 2007, 2008, and 2009

Total Summer June 25, To date2007 2008 Summer 2009

Intervals:Count 20 7 12Minimum 30 minutes 34 30Maximum 128 minutes 62 minutes 53 minutesMean 51 minutes 44 minutes 37 minutesMedian 49 minutes 36 minutes 37 minutes

Durations:Count 28 7 13Minimum 3 minutes 7 minutes 6 minutesMaximum 15 minutes 13 minutes 13 minutesMean 9 minutes 9.6 minutes 9.7 minutesMedian 9 minutes 10 minutes 9 minutes


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Information about the precedingminor is available for 15 major erup-tions of Atomizer Geyser between May27 and June 29. Quick comebackmajors occurred eight times (53.3%). Inthe other seven cases (46.7%) there wasabout an hour between the concludingminor and the major. During the 2007summer season, data was available for20 major eruptions. That summer 45%of the eruptions were quick comebackmajors. Also that summer, the meaninterval was 15h24m for the closedintervals, but was much less at 14h49mfor all the calculated intervals. Themean for closed intervals that summerwas longer than the mean interval todate for summer 2009, but the mean forall calculated intervals (14h49m) in2007 was less than the mean to date(15h10m) for the summer of 2009. Thisis probably caused by the longermaximum interval for 2009 (17h34m).(The maximum interval in 2007 was16h57m.)

Marler contained this informationabout Atomizer Geyser in his 1969report:

“Although Atomizer is situatedon the same embankment as Artemi-sia, I have not as yet recognized anyevidence that they might be con-nected subterraneously. During theseason many eruptions of Atomizerwere observed. The nature of theseeruptions is described in the 1968report.”

The 1968 report did not contain anyinformation about intervals from onemajor to the next major eruption.However, I have not located anyinformation that would indicateAtomizer Geyser’s behavior patternswere any different in the 1960s thanthey are today.

Slide GeyserThe one day I went out to time Slide

Geyser, it did not erupt while I wasthere. I did not see any colored algae onthe borders of the “slide.” Scott Bryan(geyser listserv) reported on June 14:

“Slide had an “eruption” at1023. I use quote marks because,although it steamed heavily, I couldnot see any water discharge whatso-ever. On observation, it appears the“slide” is narrower than it used to

by Ben Hoppe

Atomizer Geyser, Old Road Group, Upper Geyser Basin, June 8, 2009

by Tom Dunn

Slide Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Old Road Group, June 29, 1999[Editors’ Note: We received permission to observe and photograph the GIS survey of

the Old Road Group. Here a staff member takes temperature readings.]


11

be, implying less water discharge bythe poor thing.”

The only other period of dormancyof which I am aware occurred in thespring of 1991, as reported in the May-June 1991 issue of The Geyser GazerSput. Slide had recovered by the timethe information was printed. On May25, 1991, I observed an eruption, butunfortunately, did not stay to record asecond eruption to get an interval.

No information about Slide Geyserwas located for 1969. (Slide was notnamed until 1974, so it is doubtful thatMarler ever reported any informationabout Slide.)

Till GeyserDuring the first part of the 2008

summer season, Till’s average intervalwas 8h42m. About July 9, the meaninterval increased to 9h25m.

To date during the 2009 season, Tillintervals have not shown a consistentpattern, as shown in Figure 2. On May22 through May 24 one double intervaland one triple interval each averaged8h54m. From May 24 through May 25,three closed intervals were 8h57m,9h01m, and 9h02m. A triple interval onMay 28-29 averaged 9h07m. This tripleinterval was followed by a closedinterval of 9h26m. The next doubleinterval averaged 9h10m, followed adouble interval that averaged 9h18m.The next major to major observationwas a triple interval that averaged9h20m. On June 2-6, Till’s intervaldropped to 9h00m, then increasedslightly to 9h07m. On June 6 there wasa closed interval of 9h18m, followed by

a quadruple interval averaging 9h08m.A closed interval of 8h45m on June 8occurred after this quadruple interval.This closed interval was followed by aquadruple interval averaging 9h14m.

The next observation was on June18 when a closed interval of 9h22mwas recorded. On June 22 a doubleinterval averaging 9h17m was followedby a double interval on June 23averaging 9h12m. The next observationwas a triple interval averaging 9h17m,which was followed by a closed intervalof 9h20m.

Overnight June 23-24, Till had aninterval between observations that didnot fit anything I had seen before. Onthe evening of June 23 I recorded thestart of a Till major at 19:36. On themorning of June 24 I was surprised tosee a Till major at 09:40ie, end 09:51,which, using a 31 minute averageduration would have put the assumedstart at 9:20, for an assumed intervalbetween major eruptions of 13h44m.Scott Bryan [The Geysers of Yellow-stone, various editions and dates]mentions that Till can occasionally havea 5 hour interval, but I had never beforerecorded the possibility of one. Theassumed interval between majoreruptions of 13h44m seems too long fora closed interval based on the closedintervals ranging from 8h45m to 9h26mthat had been recorded so far in the2009 season. It also seems too short fora double interval since the shortestdouble recorded this season was17h47m. A third possibility is that ithad an interval of about 5 hours plus an

interval of about 8h45m. In my opinion,this is the most likely possibility. Theonly other interval I have recordedthrough July 8 is a closed interval of9h26m on July 26.

The mean closed interval from May22 through June 26 was 9h10m. Themean for all computed intervals fromMay 22 through June 26 was onlyslightly different at 9h08m. Theminimum closed interval was 8h45m,the maximum closed interval was9h26m, and the median closed intervalwas 9h12m.

Durations of all eruptions timeswere 30 to 33 minutes, the same as ithas been in all seasons since I startedobserving Till in 1988. The first minor,or afterburst, occurred 15-18 minutesafter the end of the major eruption;again consistent with data from earlierseasons.

On May 24 the last afterburst was3h40m after the start of the major andthere were 18 minors in the series; onJune 26 it was 3h39m after the com-puted start of the major and there were19 minors in the series. (All minoreruption I’ve seen had a duration of 1 to2 minutes. I have not seen any of the 5-minute duration minors this season.)

Marler did not include the name “TillGeyser” in his list of geysers observederupting during the 1969 season. His listof geysers active in Midway Basinduring the 1969 season included CatfishGeyser, East Flood Geyser, West floodGeyser, Tromp Spring, Mud Spring, andRiver Geyser. Lee Whittlesey [Wonder-land Nomenclature, 1988], indicatesRabbit Geyser is

“the correct historic name of TillGeyser” also states “During theearly 1960s, ‘Mud Spring’ erupted3-15 feet high for 10-15 minutesevery 6-8 hours. In 1971, Marler,still not knowing of the name RabbitGeyser, named the feature TillGeyser (to prevent confusion with aspring called Mud Spring at Norris)from glacial till which composes thenearby embankment.”

On a non-geyser note: Thank you toTim Townsend for forwarding mysuggestion about changing signage atthe side road to the Steel Bridge at theentrance to the Fairy Falls trailhead and

Figure 1: Till Intervals (less 8 hours)

0:00

0:14

0:28

0:43

0:57

1:12

1:26

1:40

5/22/2

009

5/24/20

09

5/26/2

009

5/28/2

009

5/30/20

09

6/1/20

09

6/3/20

09

6/5/200

9

6/7/20

09

6/9/20

09

6/11/20

09

6/13/2

009

6/15/2

009

6/17/20

09

6/19/200

9

6/21/2

009

6/23/20

09

6/25/2

009


12

to Colleen Rawlings for making certainthe suggestion was implemented. Priorto the change the only sign indicating“Buses, RVs and Trailers Prohibited”was on a small signpost on the northedge of the entrance road itself.Southbound vehicles might start tomake a turn into the road, but would seethe sign quickly so that they couldeasily pull back into the southboundlane. However, northbound vehiclesfrequently did not see the sign until thevehicle had already made the left turnacross the southbound lane. The vehiclewas then forced to back up across thesouthbound lane to return to thenorthbound lane. Several times lastsummer I had to grab my park serviceradio, put on my volunteer hat andbright orange and yellow constructionvest, and help stop traffic so the vehiclecould get back into the northbound laneof traffic. Now there are “Buses, RVsand Trailers Prohibited” signs on bothof the Fairy Falls Trailhead signpostsout on the main highway. Since thesigns are back from the entrance about25 yards or so, traffic in both directionshas advance warning about the prohibi-tion. So far I haven’t seen any vehiclesstart to make the turn and then have toback out into traffic.

I do believe the number of peopleusing the parking at the Steel Bridgeentrance to the Fairy Falls trailhead hassubstantially increased this year. Part ofthat may be due to the record visitationnumbers. But I think the major part of itis attributable to the various Yellow-stone chat pages that advertise the trailto Fairy Falls as “a favorite hike” andthe walk up the hills to the west as thespot to get dramatic pictures of GrandPrismatic Spring.

Flood and West Flood GeysersFlood Geyser’s intervals shortened

in 2009. Similar to 2008, Flood ishaving “splashes,” “minor” eruptionslasting 10 to 30 seconds, “intermediate”eruptions lasting 1 minutes to 2½minutes, and major eruptions lastingabout 4¾ to 6 minutes.

For June 23 through July 11, 2008,the only intervals I determined weremajor to intermediate 2h37m and2h41m, intermediate to intermediate1h38m and 1h45m, and intermediate to

major 2h05m and 4h31m.In 2009, intervals have been much

shorter than they were in 2008. Majorto major intervals have varied from49m to 1h14m. Shorter major to majorintervals do not include minor orintermediate eruptions between themajor eruptions. The longer major tomajor intervals do include minor orintermediate eruptions between themajor eruptions. The 16 major to majorintervals I have recorded have a meanof 57 minutes and a median of 58minutes. Intervals between minors or

from a minor to the major vary fromone to six minutes. The one intervalbetween two intermediate durationeruptions that I recorded was 12minutes. Intervals from an intermediateto the next major eruptions were 16 and21 minutes.

I have not seen any bursting or evenany doming activity from West Flood in2009. Every time I have been at theFlood overlook to time Flood and everytime I have driven past, the overflowfrom West Flood is about the same,with no heavy periods of overflow. The

by Pat Snyder

Till Geyser, Midway Geyser Basin, May 25, 2009

by Pat Snyder

Botryoidal Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, May 30, 2008


13

water level in the pool has not visiblyvaried, unlike 2008 when the waterlevel would drop following a period ofbursting/doming activity accompaniedby heavy overflow.

Marler included West Flood andEast Flood in his list of active geysersfor 1969. He also said:

“The fact that East and WestFlood have on infrequent occasionsbeen observed to erupt simulta-neously might be mere coincidence.Even though the river separates thesegeysers subterraneous connectionsare not unlikely. In fact, it is highlyprobable that their roots entwine.”

Lack of bursting activity from EastFlood in 2009 combined with shorterintervals for West Flood in 2009compared to 2008 may substantiateMarler’s assertion about connectionsbetween the two.

Lemon PoolEvery time I have driven past it,

Lemon Pool has been full and overflow-ing.

BotryoidalBotryoidal intervals have varied

from 3 to 6 minutes. The mean andmedian for 27 reported intervals are both4 minutes.

Marler did not include “Botryoidal”in his 1969 report. Whittlesey [Wonder-land Nomenclature, 1988] says “Thespring was named Botryoidal by parkgeologist George Marler before 1973.Botryoidal means beaded or nodular. Itis a geyser which erupts to heights of 6-8feet.”

LogbridgeOn July 5 I timed one interval of

Logbridge, which was 55 minutes.Durations of the two eruptions were 35-40 seconds.

Bryan [The Geysers of Yellowstone,various editions, various dates] indicates“Logbridge was known for years butonly as a small perpetual spouter. Itattracted attention during 1985 when itbegan having exceedingly regulareruptions.” Intervals in 1985 were 27minutes but intervals since then havebeen as long as 5 hours. Ralph Taylorhad an electronic monitor on Logbridgefrom January 1, 2008 through September22, 2008. The mean interval during thattime was 50 minutes with a median of 48

minutes. With only one data point, thedata for 2009 is insufficient to concludethat intervals for Logbridge are differentfrom what they were in 2008.

A-0In 2008 intervals for A-0 varied

from 25 to 29 minutes. Durations of theeruptions were 30 to 45 seconds.

As of early July 2009, four intervalsare recorded in the Old Faithful VisitorCenter logbook—two on June 14 andtwo on July 5. The four intervals varyfrom 26 to 30 minutes. Durations of thethree eruptions I observed on July 5were about 50 seconds.

Scott Bryan [The Geysers ofYellowstone, various editions, variousdates] indicates “[t]he first recordederuptions apparently took placer duringthe early 1970s. Intervals range from aslittle as 25 minutes to several hours.” Itappears there has been no substantivechange in A-0’s eruptive characteristicsin to date in 2009 with intervals in both2008 and 2009 at the lower end ofBryan’s range.

Great Fountain GeyserRalph Taylor’s 2009 “Current

Geyser Activity” data for the monthended July 5, 2009 consisted of 119

Figure 2: Great Fountain Intervals--2009

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

<9:00 9:00-9:29

9:30-9:59

10:00-10:29

10:30-10:59

11:00-11:29

11:30-11:59

12:00-12:29

12:30-12:59

13:00-13:29

13:30-13:59

14:00-14:29

>14:29

Table 4: Great Fountain Overflow and Pauses, 2009

Combined OverflowOverflow Pause Plus Pause

Number 39 53 39Minimum 71 minutes 0 minutes 77 minutesMean 82 minutes 3 minutes 86 minutesMedian 82 minutes 3 minutes 86 minutesMaximum 94 minutes 10 minutes 96 minutes

Table 5: Great Fountain’s Activity for the 1969 Season

Month Number Average Maximum Minimumof Intervals Interval Interval Interval

June 68 8h12m 9h0m 7h28mJuly 67 8h30m 9h0m 7h42mAugust 78 8h36m 12h40m 7h23mSeptember 49 9h05m 11h30m 7h48m


14

intervals had a minimum of 8h55m, amean of 11h45m, a median of 11h33m,and a maximum of 16h20m.

From May 23 through July 5, GreatFountain has been fairly well behaved,with 80% of the intervals in the threehour range from 10 to 13 hours, asshown in Figure 2. (Data is availablefor 84 intervals, 78 intervals fromRalph Taylor’s electronic data plus 6intervals from the OFVC logbookduring June 15-June 21 when Taylor’selectronic data was not available.)Adding a fourth hour to the window tomake it 10-14 hours captured 89.3% ofthe intervals. Only 4.8% of the intervalswere less than 10 hours and 6.0% of theintervals were greater than 14 hours.When Great Fountain was good, shewas very, very good, but when she wasbad, she was horrid. Three of the fiveintervals in excess of 14 hours were16h20m, 17h12m, and 21h41m.

Data on overflow, pauses, and totalof overflow plus pause is shown inTable 4. From May 23 through July 7,2009, I’ve recorded length of overflowfor 17 eruptions. Overflow has variedfrom a minimum of 71 minutes to amaximum of 94 minutes with a meanand median that are both 82 minutes.This is more than 10 minutes shorterthan the mean and median overflows for2008. I’ve generally been using 80 to 85minutes for the mid-point of the half-hour prediction window.

Durations of the 53 recorded pausesbetween the “1-meter boil” and thebursting activity have varied from 0 to10 minutes, with a mean and median of 3minutes.

When the overflow and pause arecombined, the minimum combined timeis 77 minutes, the maximum is 96minutes, and the mean and median areboth 86 minutes.

Marler’s data on Great Fountain’sactivity for the 1969 season is shown inTable 5. The average increased acrossthe season from 8h12m to 9h05m, whichwas still much shorter than the 2009interval to date of 11h45m.

White Dome GeyserThrough July 6, I have recorded 240

intervals for White Dome. (Intervals arefor major to major; minor eruptionswhere White Dome spurts water a few

Figure 3: White Dome Intervals--2009

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

<=15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 >60

feet high for a few seconds are notincluded in the calculations.) Theintervals vary from a minimum of 11minutes to a maximum of 2h06m, with amean of 32 minutes and a median of 29

minutes. (The mean and median are thesame as they were in the early part of the2008 season.) As shown in Figure 3,White Dome’s intervals are skewedtoward shorter intervals with a mode of

by Tom Dunn

White Dome Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, July 7, 1995


15

40 intervals in the 21 to 25 minutecategory. The 16 to 20 minute categorycontains 38 intervals, as does the 31-35minute category. There are 37 intervalsin the 26 to 30 minute category. Thesefour categories encompassing intervalsfrom 16 to 35 minutes account for 64%of the total recorded intervals.

In his report for the 1968 season,Marler said “None of the ninety and overminute intervals which are frequentsome seasons were observed during thecurrent one. The intervals rangedbetween about 15 and 30 minutes.” Sofar during the 2009 season, four intervals(1.7%) over 90 minutes have beenrecorded, which probably would notmeet Marler’s definition of “frequent.”

Gemini, Pebble, and CrackGeysers

Most of the time when I drive past,the small depression around Gemini’snorth vent is full and the south vent isbubbly away merrily. Occasionally thesouth vent will erupt up to 12 incheshigh but I have not recorded theseevents as “eruptions.” These periods ofactivity from the south vent are easilyvisible from the end of the boardwalk atGreat Fountain.

Series of Gemini eruptions havebeen recorded on May 24 and 28, andJune 3 and 29. There were at least 11eruptions on May 24. The first eruptionobserved was at 08:01ie. The seriesended with an eruption at 09:23. Thefirst of the 10 reported eruptions in theseries on May 28 was seen at 13:35.The series ended at 14:52. On June 3 Isaw a series start at 18:44. Afterwatching 18 eruptions, with the last oneoccurring at 21:11, I left even thoughthe series had not concluded. On June29 the first eruption of eight observederuptions was seen at 13:52. The seriesended at 15:00. The June 3 series wasthe only series where the initial eruptionwas observed. Unfortunately, the June 3series was also the only series wherethe concluding eruption was notobserved.

The water level in Pebble isfluctuating. I have not seen it rise farenough to overflow.

A marker placed on Crack when theroad opened Memorial Day weekend2009 has remained in place to the date

of this writing.Marler included this information

about Gemini, Pebble and CrackGeysers in his 1969 report:

“During July an earthquake-causedcrack in the sinter a few feet east ofGemini began erupting. By August itsactivity brought about completecessation of activity of Gemini. Thenew geyser has been referred to as theCrack. The duration and height of itseruptions are essentially the same asGemini. There is a noticeable sympathybetween Crack and Pebble geysers.Action of the former always producesagitation and frequently eruptions ofthe latter.”

Currently, the water level in Pebblein Pebble drops when Gemini is in aseries of eruptions with both ventserupting, but it also drops when theright vent only is periodically bubblingup. A sympathetic relationship betweenthe water levels in Crack and Pebblewas observed in 2007 during Crack’sactive phase. So far in 2009 there hasbeen no opportunity to observe therelationship between Crack and Pebblesince Crack has not been active.

UNNG in Tangled CreekI have seen no signs of eruptive

activity from this feature as of July 9,2009.

DilemmaSo far during the 2009 season, I

have not seen any episodes of heaviersteam and have also not heard anygurgling from Dilemma.

Wolf and Paperiello [1986, Reporton Lesser Known Thermal Units OfYellowstone National Park, 1981-1985]wrote:

“Dilema [sic] Geyser”. Thisname was given by Tomas Vachudaduring the summer of 1984 to two

small vents…He is the one who firstnoticed them erupting. Theseeruptions were very frequent, butalso very small. They consisted ofonly a spurt or two, rarely as high asa foot.”

Dilemma may have been anotherone of the unnamed geysers in the PinkCone Group that Marler reportederupting during 1969.

Narcissus and PinkThe monitors on both these geysers

were removed by critters during thewinter season and have not yet beenreplaced.

Narcissus continues to exhibit thepattern of short durations followed bylong intervals ending in a long durationfollowed by a short interval, i.e., thereverse relationship between durationand interval that is exhibited by OldFaithful, Great Fountain and Flood.(Scott Bryan [2008, “Narcissus GeyserEruption Patterns June 27 – July 31,2005,” The GOSA Transactions,Volume 10] termed these short modeintervals that produce short modedurations and long mode intervals thatproduce long mode durations.)

Descriptive statistics for Narcissusintervals from May 23 through July 6,2009 are shown in Table 6. (Intervalswere computed by treating “ns” and“ie” times as start times, so the data isan approximation of the intervals ratherthan a precise computation.) “Short”intervals are those following a longduration eruption; conversely, “long”intervals are those following a shortduration eruption. I had been using aprediction of 1¾ to 2¼ hours after along duration eruption and 3½ to 4½hours after a short duration eruption.After looking at this data, I will beadjusting my prediction model to 2 to

Table 6: Narcissus Geyser Intervals, May 23 – July 6, 2009

“Short “Long Presumed CombinationIntervals” Intervals” Intervals

Count 14 10 5Minimum 1h52m 3h02m 5h12mMean 2h20m 3h34m 5h45mMedian 2h21m 3h35m 5h42mMaximum 2h47m 4h24m 6h36m


16

2½ hours after a long duration eruptionsince the mean and median intervalsfollowing the long duration have beenabout 2h20m and 2h21m, respectively.The five “combined interval” caseswere observations where an interveningeruption was presumably missed,although one or more of these could becases where Narcissus decided to“skip” an intervening eruption, or haveconsecutive long mode intervals anddurations, as reported by Bryan [2008,The GOSA Transactions].

Six closed intervals (two of whichwere computed using an “ie” time as astart time) for Pink Geyser wereobtained between May 23 and July 6,2009. These intervals were 5h25m,5h47m, 5h56m, 6h14m, 6h16m, and7h31m. Using 6 hours as an approxi-mate average, there was one tripleinterval that averaged 5h45m, and fourquadruple intervals that averaged5h20m, 5h52m, 6h03m, and 6h38m. Anoverall mean for these 25 assumedintervals is 5h59m. It appears that PinkGeyser’s intervals this summer havevaried from just under 5½ hours to justover 7½ hours, with an average of 6hours. All durations recorded during the2009 season to date have been about 11to 12 minutes.

Ralph Taylor’s electronic data forthe four weeks ended September 22,2008 showed a mean of 6h33m, amedian of 6h17m, a minimum of5h21m and a maximum of 11h0m for114 intervals. Although no closedintervals approaching 11 hours havebeen reported for the 2009 season, noobservation periods of sufficient lengthto preclude that possibility have beenconducted during the 2009 season.

In his 1969 report, Marler said“Narcissus … erupted with [its] usualregularity; Narcissus playing about eversix hours.” Marler did not indicatedurations for eruptions of Narcissus.Marler also said “four unnamed geysersin the Pink Cone group were observedin frequent eruptive activity.” One ofthese could have been Pink, but sinceno other information is available thereis no certainty that Pink was actuallyactive in 1969.

BeadTable 7 shows descriptive statistics

for Bead Geyser. Intervals in 2009 todate are shorter than intervals through asimilar time period in 2008 were. Theminimum in 2009 (25 minutes) is 2minutes less than the 2008 minimum(27 minutes). The maximum (34minutes in 2009 and 37 minutes in2008) and mean (32 minutes in 2008and 29 minutes in 2009) are each 3minutes less. The median (28 minutesin 2009 and 32 minutes in 2008) is 4

minutes less.Distribution of the intervals is

shown in Figure 4. The 28 and 29minute intervals account for 65.3% ofthe total intervals. If the 27 and 30minute intervals are added, the four-minute range of 27-30 minutes accountsfor 80.5% of the intervals. Only 3.4%of the intervals were less than 27minutes. The 31-32 minute categoryaccounts for 5.1% of the intervals andthe 33-34 minute category accountedfor 11.0% of the intervals.

by Tom Dunn

Narcissus Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, June 22, 1993

Table 7: Bead Intervals, 2009 and 2009

Interval Bead BeadStatistic 2009 to July 8 2008 to July 13

Count 118 73Minimum 25 minutes 27 minutesMaximum 34 minutes 37 minutesMean 29 minutes 32 minutesMedian 28 minutes 32 minutes


17

Table 8: Box Spring, 2009 and 2008

Interval Statistic Box Spring Box Spring2009 to July 7 2008 to July 13

Count 126 82Minimum 8 minutes 15 minutesMaximum 76 minutes 69 minutesMean 24 minutes 25 minutesMedian 22 minutes 23 minutes

Figure 5: Box Spring Intervals--2009

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

< 10 '10-14 '15-19 '20-24 '25-29 '30-34 '35-39 '40-49 >=50 34

In 1969 Marler wrote that BeadGeyser erupted with its “usual regular-ity” and Bead’s intervals varied “from27 to 30 minutes.” Although Bead’sintervals have varied from 27 to 34minutes in 2009, it probably can still besaid that Bead Geyser is one of themore regular geysers in the park.

Box SpringThrough July 7, 2009, I have

recorded 126 intervals for Box Spring.Comparative descriptive statistics forthe intervals for 2009 and 2008 areshown in Table 8. The 2009 intervalshave a broader range (68 minutes, fromminimum of 8 minutes to maximum of76 minutes) than the 2008 intervals (54minutes, from a minimum of 15 minutesto a maximum of 69 minutes.) How-ever, the 2009 mean and medianintervals (24 and 22 minutes, respec-tively) are each only one minute lessthan the 2008 mean and medianintervals (25 minutes and 23 minutes,respectively).

Distribution of the Box Springintervals (in 5-minute categories) isshown in Figure 5. “Most” (78.6%) ofthe intervals are between 15 and 29minutes. Only 6.3% of the intervals areless than 10 minutes in length. Only5.6% of the intervals are 40 minutes orgreater. If the 30-39 minute categories,which contains 9.5% of the intervals areadded to the 15-29 minute category, thetotal range from 15 to 39 minutescontains 88.1% of the intervals.

In his monthly report for June 1969,Marler indicated that Box was one of

Figure 4: Bead Intervals--2009

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

the features in the Pink Cone Groupthat has exhibited geyser activity.However, he did not include BoxSpring among the features listed in his1969 annual report.

Labial and Labial’s SatelliteVents

To date I have recorded four closedintervals for Labial for the 2009summer season. These intervals are5h25m, 5h37m, 5h47m, and 6h43m.

One presumed double interval averaged6h54m. One presumed triple intervalaveraged 5h30m. The mean for theclosed, double, and triple intervals was5h58. This is comparable to the meanof 6h01m for the first part of the 2008summer season and 5h55m for the firstpart of the 2007 summer season.

I recorded eruptions of Labial’sSatellite Vents on June 6, Jun 21, andJuly 6. For only the second time in myexperience over the past two decadesyears of watching geysers in the PinkCone Group, I observed a closedinterval of Labial’s Satellite Vents. OnJuly 30, 2008 I recorded an interval of1h51m between eruptions of Labial’sSatellite Vents. On June 21, 2009, Irecorded my second case of a closedinterval. This interval was 2h35m.These short closed intervals areextremely rare occurrences, at least inmy experience and based on conversa-tions with other people who spend timewatching features in the Pink ConeGroup. There have been many dayswhen I have spent more than 12consecutive hours observing the PinkCone Group without seeing a single


18

eruption of Labial’s Satellite Vents letalone two eruptions to get a closedinterval.

Marler did not mention either Labialor Labial’s Satellite Vents in his 1969annual or monthly reports. Again,perhaps one or both of these featureswere among the four unnamed featuresin the Pink Cone Group that he reportedas active.

Pink ConeDuring the first part of the 2008

summer season, the mean interval forPink Cone was 20h51m and the medianwas 20h42m. This was almost the sameas the overall mean interval for thesummer of 2007 of 20h41m. The onlythree durations I recorded during thefirst part of the 2008 Summer seasonwere 101 minutes, 101 minutes, and108 minutes.

For 2009 to date, fifteen closedintervals have varied from a minimumof 20h48m to a maximum of 24h18m,with a mean of 22h08m and a medianof 21h35m. (Thank you to Stephen Eidefor providing start times on July 6 and 7to compute one of these intervals.) Themean interval is 17 minutes longer thanit was during the first part of the 2008season and the median interval is 53minutes longer than it was during thefirst part of the 2008 season. I haverecorded seven durations—100, 102,102, 103, 106, 107, and 107 minutes.Durations appear to be about the sameas they were in the first part of the 2008Summer season.

Marler included this informationabout Pink Cone Geyser in his 1969annual report:

Pink Cone Geyser has been a veryconsistent performer since the ’59earthquake greatly shortened itsinterval. [Using markers, Marlerconcluded in 1954 that Pink Coneerupted about every 40 to 50 hours.]Eruptions occur about every six hoursand last from about 90 to 105 minutes.During the activity the water columnwill momentarily subside in height to befollowed by renewed vigor in activity.

Certain hot springs in the basins arerecipients of greater misuse than others.Pink Cone seems to be one that vandalsdelight in abusing with their malprac-tices. Fortunately it has a constricted

pipe and most of the rocks thrown intoit are disgorged at the time of aneruption. Once during the season alarge block of rock was placed so itcompletely covered the crater.

Although today’s durations of about100 to 110 minutes are just slightlylonger than the 1969 durations of 90 to105 minutes, today’s average interval of21½ to 22 hours is 3½ times as long asthe six hour interval in 1969.

Either fewer rocks are thrown intoPink Cone now than were thrown into itduring Marler’s day or the geyser is nolonger able to disgorge those that areintroduced into it because I don’tremember ever seeing Pink Cone throwout rocks during an eruption. (I have,however, seen a few visitors manage totoss rocks into the cone.)

Thank you again to all the peoplewho report eruption times and/or enterthe times in the Visitor Center logbook.

by Pat Snyder

Pink Cone Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, May 28, 2009


19

It was recently suggested that theSput could revive the old “Guide to”articles from past years. I’ve offered tocontribute some information about Fanand Mortar Geysers. Ordinarily I wouldstart with the more basic information,but the recent Upper Mortar initiatederuption on July 8 inspired me to lookat my notes on Fan and Mortar starttypes, and I’ve written a short summary.

The accompanying table shows abreakdown of observed Fan and Mortarstart types for the 2000s. In brief, mostobserved eruptions in 2001 wereinitiated by Upper Mortar, and the onlyknown Lower Mortar minor initiatedstarts occurred in that year. In 2002 and2003, the start types were split roughlyevenly between “lock” and UpperMortar. Then in 2004, “lock” startsbecame the norm, and no Upper Mortarstarts were observed through the end ofthat active phase in 2005. Untilrecently, all observed eruptions in thecurrent active phase that began in June2007 started with “lock.”

Year Lock UM LM Total2000 1 1 0 22001 1 17 3 212002 15 17 0 322003 9 10 0 192004 18 2 0 202005 9 0 0 92007 5 0 0 52008 21 0 0 212009 2 1 0 3

Definitions of Start TypesIn the 2000s, Fan and Mortar have

demonstrated 3 ways in which aneruption can be initiated: “lock” starts,Upper Mortar initiated, and LowerMortar minor initiated.

Until 2001, major eruptions of Fanand Mortar typically started from abehavior referred to as Lock or ClassicLock, when High, Gold, and sometimesAngle had strong, continuous jettingactivity to 3 to 10 feet. During a strongcycle, observers looked for indicationsof high water levels in the minorvents—pooling in Gold, activity of thesmall vents next to Gold (“Gold 2” and

“Gold 3”), and consistent bubbling andoverflow from High. High and Goldwould grow in strength until they wereerupting constantly to 2-4 feet. WhenAngle joined in this activity and allthree vents were continuous, High andGold would gradually get stronger untilthe eruption was triggered by one of themajor vents—usually Main Vent or EastVent. Other varieties of this behaviorwere seen in the 2000s. In 2002, lockwas characterized by very strongactivity from High Vent, and sometimesHigh was the only vent that partici-pated. Starting in 2004, it was notuncommon to see High and Gold dropdown to normal levels, or even “bottomout” briefly. Sometimes the ventsreturned to lock behavior and theeruption commenced in typical fashion.In one case in 2007, the water levelswent up and down three times beforethe eruption finally began. However, onseveral occasions the water levelsdropped for good and, frustratingly, Fanand Mortar did not erupt. These “falselocks,” while relatively infrequent, wereseen in all active years from 2004-2008.1

Upper Mortar initiated starts wereunusual but not unheard of in the 80sand 90s, but became a commonoccurrence from 2001-2003, but only 3have been observed since. UpperMortar starts occur in about the samepoint of the cycle as a lock start, butwater levels do not need to be high inthe minor vents. In the early 2000s,observers looked for water in UpperMortar starting 12-14 minutes afterRiver Vent began. If an eruption was tooccur, Upper Mortar would haveperiodic surges 30-90 seconds apart,gaining in strength until the surgesfilled the cone and overflowed over thesides. The surge that triggered theeruption would be anywhere from 5-20feet high, last 10-60 seconds, andinundate the entire cone with water.East Vent was the first vent of Fan tosignal the start of a major eruption, andwould begin either during this surge ora few seconds after. For an eruption tobe Upper Mortar initiated, the eruption

must start from a series of cone-fillingsurges in Upper Mortar, and theinitiating surge must occur when Fan’sminor vents are NOT having lockbehavior. Simply having Upper Mortaras the first major vent to start duringlock does not make it an Upper Mortarinitiated start; if the minor vents are inlock at the start of the eruption, then itis considered a lock start.

Lower Mortar minor initiated:Lower Mortar minors began to occur inthe late 1990s, but observers wereunaware that an eruption could betriggered by one until July 11, 2001.There were two more observed in 2001,but the behavior has not been observedsince. In the two instances whencomplete data was taken, Lower Mortarminor starts occurred during pauses, atime in the cycle when it was previouslyunknown for Fan and Mortar to erupt.When an eruption began during aLower Mortar minor, all the vents werequiet except for Lower Mortar andBottom Vent. Instead of losing energyafter 2 minutes, Lower Mortar gained instrength. Then East Vent suddenly shotout of its vent with almost no warning,quickly followed by the rest of thevents.

I hope to write a series of shortarticles over the winter about what towatch for at Fan and Mortar before theeruption starts.

(Endnotes)1 This brings up the question of

whether this behavior should be called“lock” at all. Paul Strasser first used theterm because Fan and Mortar were “alock” to erupt. The term as it is under-stood now refers to the specificbehavior rather than the concept.

FAN AND MORTAR STARTS IN THE 2000Sby Tara Cross-Monteith


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While electronic data is certainlyuseful for crunching numbers andproviding summaries of geyser data thatgive us a general idea of what ishappening in the basins, there is nosubstitute for visual observation indescribing the nuances of particulargeysers. And there are some things thatdon’t fit neatly into charts or tables.

The following is based on observa-tions of geysers conducted by myselfand the many other geyser gazers whowere present in the basins during myweek-long visit to Yellowstone fromJune 20-28, 2009. The names of thosegazers who passed along data to mewill be mentioned in the text or datatables, where appropriate.

Some gazers post reports of theirYellowstone visits on the GeysersMailing List, and these are often veryuseful in giving us a “sneak preview” ofwhat is happening in the basins. Thisinformation is being included here forthe benefit of those who may not be onthe Mailing List, as well as those whoare coming to the park later in thesummer. As always, there are someinteresting quirks with the geysers,along with trends in their activity, thatare worthy of being reported on in amore formal manner.

Old Faithful: As usual, I did notkeep close track of (or notes on!) thisone. The average interval still appearsto be running right around 91 minutes.At least two short intervals werereported during my week-long visit;otherwise, most intervals and durationswere “longs.” From what I heard fromthe visitor center over the radio, severaleruptions had heights of 140 feet.

Plume: In a manner similar to lastyear, Plume’s intervals seemed to vary abit from one day to the next, butexhibited a fair degree of regularity onany given day. Some of the longerintervals occurred during the earlydaylight hours, while the air tempera-ture was still cool. The 107-minuteinterval occurred during the morninghours of June 26, when we had a

pounding rainstorm. All of the eruptionsthat I watched from close at hand hadfive bursts.

A sampling of Plume intervals forthe time period of June 21-27 is givenin Table 1.

Beehive: This geyser surprisedeveryone with an interval of only 11hours 31 minutes on June 25. Itoccurred on the same day as LittleSquirt. I was talking with a friend ofmine on the mezzanine of the OldFaithful Inn, but taking occasionalglances out the window, since thepossibility existed for another eruptionof Beehive before darkness fell. When Itook a glance out the window and sawwhat was erupting next to Beehive’s

OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS ON SELECTED GEYSERS,LATE JUNE 2009

by Andrew Hafner

by Ralph Friz

Beehive Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Spring 2009,

Table 1Plume Geyser Data, Late June 2009

Date Intervals (in minutes)

6/21 64, 60, 60, 67, and 636/23 79 and 716/24 81, 76, 64, 58, and 626/25 63, 65, and 596/26 72, 107, 71, 59, and 72

cone, I got on the radio immediatelyand sprinted to Geyser Hill. Tara Cross,Ben Hoppe, and Greg Gushwa alsomade it to the Hill in time for theeruption. There may have been anothergazer or two across the river at theoverlook. As viewed from Geyser Hill,the eruption had a gorgeous doublerainbow. (The morning eruption, at0809, also had a very nice doublerainbow).

In past seasons, I have seen Beehivehave many shorter-than-averageintervals around the time of LittleSquirt and high water levels in SilverSpring. I do not think that this is merelycoincidence.

Data on Beehive for the week ofJune 20-28 is shown in Table 2. Someof the longer intervals observed duringthe week seemed to occur during theovernight hours. The Indicator’s leadtime on Beehive was remarkablyconsistent, except prior to the eveningeruption of June 25. (A few minuteswere probably missed).

We had been waiting most of theafternoon on 6/27 for the eruption thatfinally took place at 1817; when waterfinally pooled up in the Indicator’s


21

vent, someone announced over theradio, “Here’s the moment you’ve allbeen waiting for – there is water inBeehive’s Indicator.”

The following sequence is beingmentioned here because it is one thatmakes geyser gazing so easy, and keepsus coming back again and again, evenafter the worst days: Beehive’s Indica-tor 1931, Beehive 1945, Castle 1949near start (major), Lion initial 1951.

After my departure, Beehive seemedto be settling down into a pattern ofshorter and more regular intervals; thefour intervals in the days after mydeparture were 12 hours 11 minutes on6/28, 13 hours 0 minutes on 6/29, 13hours 8 minutes overnight 6/29-30, and12 hours 21 minutes on 6/30 in thedaylight.

Castle: Not much to say about thisone, except that Castle has continuedwith the temperamental behaviorobserved over the last handful of years.The data in Table 3 illustrates Castle’sactivity for the period of June 21-27better than I can describe it. Minor-to-major intervals seem to be highlyerratic. When minor eruptions are notoccurring, the visitor center is using 13¾ hours for predictions.

The eruption of 6/24, which pausedfor six minutes and then restarted, gavesome of the highest water spikes I haveever seen from this geyser. I saw

Table 2Beehive Geyser, June 21-27, 2009

Date Time Interval Indicatorlead time onBeehive

6/21 1352 ———- 13 minutes6/22 0609 16hr17m 11 minutes

1945 13hr36m 14 minutes6/23 1216 15hr39m 15 minutes6/24 1708 28hr52m 14 minutes

(double interval)6/25 0809 15hr01m 11 minutes

1938 11hr31m 08 minutes(Indicator observed i.e. forsecond eruption)

6/26 1230 16hr52m 15 minutes6/27 1817 28hr43m 15 minutes

(double interval)by Andrew Hafner

Penta Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, June 29, 2009

Table 3Castle Geyser, June 20-27, 2009

Date Time Comments Interval6/20 2148 Minor ———6/21 0229ie Major 4hr41m

Minor-to-major interval1659 Major 14hr30m

6/22 0645 Major 13hr46m1949ns Major 13hr04m

6/23 0913 Minor 13hr47m1656ie Major 7hr43m

Minor-to-major interval6/24 0736 Pause at 0741; restart at 0747, eruption was a major 14hr40m6/25 0630ie Sloppy, minor yesterday P.M., ———

0945 Major6/26 1432 Major; Double interval, major overnight 28hr47m6/27 0700ie Sloppy, minor early A.M., ———

0823 Minor, 1535 major


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several other eruptions of Castle whichpaused and then restarted in autumn of2004.

Sawmill Geyser Complex: Interest-ing and fun stuff here. Two eruptions byPenta Geyser were observed duringmy week-long visit. Both of these werefull, water-phase eruptions. The firstwas on 6/21, at 0836, and had aduration of 60 minutes. Jim Schrier (Idon’t know if this is spelled correctly!)said that this was the first full eruptionof Penta in approximately two weeks.The second eruption, on 6/23, started at1646, and had a duration of over 3hours. It began while I was havingdinner, and was still in progress when Iheaded to the Lower Basin at around1815. One observer reported to me thatPenta paused at 1923, restarted at 1931,and continued for at least another 30minutes, although he said the eruptionwas only about half as strong as before.He added that Old Tardy erupted at1930, just before Penta restarted.

Eruptions by Uncertain werereported on 6/21 (the same day asPenta!) and 6/22. There may have beenothers that I didn’t hear about. Tardycycles were seen on 6/23, the day ofPenta’s long eruption late in theafternoon. David Goldberg, Tara Cross,Ben Hoppe, and I waited out one ofthese, with hopes that something mighthappen. Otherwise, the complex was onSawmill mode, with Sawmill seen ineruption several times each day.

Grand: Grand could also bedescribed as being a temperamentalperformer. During my visit, as well asthe several weeks preceding it, erup-tions seemed to be occurring in the laterhalf – or even out of – the predictionwindow. There has been some talkabout adjusting the prediction. I canrecall sitting through some long waitsduring my visit! For those who arecoming to the park later this summer, beprepared to spend some time.

Data on Grand Geyser for the timeperiod of June 21-27 is presented inTable 4. A few electronic times wereincluded for the purpose of filling indata and calculating intervals. Thepresumed double interval overnight 6/24-25 was due to a malfunction with thedata logger.

No delays were reported during myvisit. Rift Geyser appeared to be aboutas active as it has in past years; itappears in my notes for 6/22, 6/23, 6/24and 6/27. There may have been a fewovernight eruptions which were not

by Andrew Hafner

Uncertain Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, June 22, 2009

Table 4Grand Geyser, June 21-27, 2009

Date Time Interval Code6/21 0226E——— ———

1138 9hr12m T1C2039 9hr01m T1C

6/22 0746 1hr07m T1C1816 10hr44m x2C

6/23 0344E9hr18m ———1257 9hr13m T1Q2148 8hr51m 2B

6/24 0723 9hr35m T1C1618 8hr55m T2Q

6/25 1016 17hr58m G1C(double interval)1805 7hr49m T1C

6/26 0308E9hr03m ———1227 9hr19m T1Q1138E11hr11m ———

6/27 0926 9hr48m T2Q2023 10hr57m T3Q

observed. On 6/22, Rift erupted at1525, in the early part of Grand’swindow; Grand did not erupt until1816, nearly three hours later. On 6/23,the start of Rift was reported at 0944 bya visitor, and Grand did not erupt until1257. On 6/24, Rift was reported ineruption at 0520, and Grand erupted abit more than two hours later, at 0723.Finally, on 6/27, Leslie Gushwareported that Rift was in eruptionsometime between 1730 and 1800, justbefore Beehive. I do not know whenRift started or ended. Grand did noterupt until 2023. Those four intervalswere 10 hours 44 minutes, 9 hours 13minutes, 9 hours 35 minutes, and 10hours 57 minutes. The first and last ofthese four were the second and thirdlongest intervals of the entire week.

I don’t know if the longest intervalon Grand for the week, 11 hours 11minutes on 6/26, occurred with orwithout the benefit of Rift. Udo Freund,Jan Freund, and a few others waited atGrand for some time past dusk, withoutsuccess. They reported that Grand’spool was not filling well with eachTurban cycle. Udo also commented tome on how he thinks that when West


23

Triplet, Percolator, and Rift Geyserserupt, the focus of the thermal energyseems to shift to that side of the GrandComplex. Here’s a possible idea forsomeone looking to do an article for afuture issue of The Sput or volume ofthe GOSA Transactions.

All but one of Grand’s observederuptions for the week were Turban-initiated. I was told that there had beenmore Grand-initiated starts earlier inthe season. The afternoon eruption of6/24, at 1618, began nearly threeminutes into a Turban eruption. As seenfrom the boardwalk below CrestedPool, Turban erupted vigorously, as itoften does just before the start ofGrand, without anything happening, forwhat seemed to me a few minutes,before Grand finally joined in with abig, sudden splash-up.

Grand’s most spectacular eruptionof the week occurred just beforesundown on 6/27. As the time forTurban approached, Grand’s pooldropped significantly. It began havingwaves, however, and then quickly roseand flooded. Grand erupted at 2023,and the low evening sun turned thewater column a pale shade of gold.When Vent Geyser started, a rainbowappeared between it and Grand. Thefirst burst ended after about 8 minutes.The second burst went up after a pauseof about 20 seconds. This lasted aminute or so before stopping, and thethird burst promptly jetted skywardonly a few seconds later. All threebursts had wonderful height. A largecrowd had gathered at Grand, since theeruption took place very late into theprediction window. Many of these folkshad been waiting for several hours, andthey cheered and screamed loudly whenGrand began waving and overflowing,and more enthusiastically when thesecond and third bursts went up. It wasmy final night in the park, so theeruption was a wonderful send-off.

The “Sputniks” were reported onmost days of my visit.

“Dueling” eruptions of Grandand Beehive: For what it’s worth,during my visit I frequently heard theremark from other geyser gazers thatthe prediction window for Grand andthe anticipated time for Beehive seemed

to be coinciding more often than usualthis season. On 6/23, many of us werewaiting at Grand when water inBeehive’s Indicator was called on theradio. We headed for Geyser Hill, wereable to see Beehive, and made it backin plenty of time for Grand, whicherupted at 1257. On 6/24, Beehive wasagain anticipated while Grand was in itsprediction window. Beehive eruptedabout 50 minutes after Grand, so wewere once again able to see bothgeysers. Finally, on 6/26, Beehive’santicipated time and Grand’s predictionwindow coincided yet again. Water inBeehive’s Indicator was called on theradio, and many of us headed for theHill. This time, however, we were notso lucky – shortly after arriving on theHill, we saw water spikes from Grandover the trees at 1227. Beehive eruptedthree minutes later.

Most of the gazers I spoke withcould find no rhyme or reason to this,since the intervals for the two geysersthis season have been rather dissimilar.Here is another possible idea for

someone looking to write an article forThe Sput or the GOSA Transactions.

The energy is in Chromatic ratherthan in Beauty.

Daisy: The average interval hereseems to be running somewhat longerthan it was last summer, but Daisy stillappears to be a highly regular geyser. Asampling of intervals is given in Table5. The range of intervals observed byme is remarkably small, from 2 hours14 minutes to 2 hours 28 minutes. Ithink that the Visitor Center was using 2hours 15 or 20 minutes for predictions.

by Andrew Hafner

Grand Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, June 23, 2009

Table 5Daisy Geyser Intervals,

Late June 2009

Date Intervals6/23 2hr22m, 2hr14m6/24 2hr21m, 2hr25m6/25 2hr23m, 2hr28m6/27 2hr27m, 2hr21m,

2hr25m, 2hr17m


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Grotto Geyser and relations: Onemarathon eruption of Grotto occurredduring my week-long stay in the park,on 6/25. It was reported to be ineruption at 0630, and continued all day.There was a report that morning offrequent bursts from Spa Geyser to 40feet, or roughly the height of thesurrounding trees.

Grotto marathons seem to beoccurring less frequently this seasonthan in the past handful of years, atintervals of a few days to possibly aweek, and are interspersed with longstrings of “normal” or short eruptions.On 6/21, there were two short eruptionsof Grotto, at 0752 and 1342, for aninterval 5 hours 50 minutes. On 6/23,eruptions of Grotto at 0946 and 1533gave an interval of 5 hours 42 minutes.The second eruption started withoutGrotto Fountain. I was watching thestart of Riverside Geyser when I lookedover my shoulder and, to my surprise,saw Grotto in full eruption. Twoeruptions on 6/24, at 1021 and 1621,gave an interval of exactly six hours.Grotto was seen in eruption three timeson 6/25, at 0516i.e, 1215i.e, and1745i.e. Finally, an interval betweenGrotto starts of 7 hours 17 minutes wasrecorded on 6/27. The first of these, at1228, was the first eruption by Grottoafter the previous day’s marathon. Oneof the Grotto starts mentioned here waspreceded by two “Central Vent delays.”

Grotto Fountain is certainly one ofthe loveliest geysers in all of Yellow-stone. The eruptions that I watchedseemed to reach about 40 feet or so inheight.

Major eruptions by Rocket Geyserare occurring; two of them werereported in the same day on 6/23 and 6/25. One Rocket major during the week,as seen from the Castle-Grand area ofthe basin, sent water spikes over thetrees near Grotto.

Riverside: I obtained 5 closedintervals on Riverside during my visit:5 hours 59 minutes, 6 hours 0 minutes,5 hours 55 minutes, 5 hours 58 minutes,and 5 hours 47 minutes. All of thesewere obtained from eruptions seen withthe aid of predictions based on singleintervals. Some longer intervals mayalso have occurred. In other words,

Riverside is still its usual, dependableself

I timed one full-pool to full-poolinterval of 43 minutes for Cliff Geyser,in Black Sand Basin.

Fountain Geyser and relations:Fountain has thus far been one of thepleasant surprises of the 2009 summerseason. During my visit, it was perhapsthe most satisfying of the majorgeysers. Intervals during the springhave mostly ranged from 5 ½ to 7hours. Data on Fountain Geyser fromJune 21-27 is presented in Table 6.Ralph Friz, Maureen Edgerton, LynnStephens, Jim Schrier, and Scott Bryancontributed some of the times includedhere. Note the fairly tight range forsome of the closed intervals! From thelength of some of the multiple intervals,it seemed that Fountain was tendingtoward shorter intervals during theovernight hours.

Lynn Stephens mentioned to methat UNNG-FTN-2 (“Super Frying Pan”)is exerting more control over Jet Geyserthis year than in the past. When UNNG-FTN-2 has an eruption some timebefore Fountain, Jet will not erupt.Lynn may discuss this in greater detailin a future article. Jet was not active fortwo of the Fountain eruptions Iwitnessed during my visit. In bothcases, it managed to have only a feweruptions near the end of Fountain’sduration.

For the remainder of the Fountaineruptions that I watched, and for whichJet was active, Jet’s intervals prior tothe start of Fountain ranged from 7 to10 minutes. After Fountain began, Jetdid what it typically does in response toan eruption of Fountain, by eruptingevery 1 to 4 minutes. During oneFountain eruption, where I had toldseveral family groups to stop andwatch, one person kept saying over and

Table 6Fountain Geyser, June 21-27, 2009

Date Time Interval Duration Jet Geyser active?(in minutes)

6/21 0601i.e. ——— ———- ——-1233n.s. 6hr32m ———- ——-1854 6hr21m 33 yes

6/22 0725n.s. 12hr41m ———- ——-(double interval)

1316 5hr51m 30 no1907 5hr51m 30 yes

6/23 0558i.e. 10hr51m ———- ——-(double interval)

1257 5hr59m 31 yes1842 5hr45m 30 yes

6/24 0604n.s. 11hr22m ———- ——-(double interval)

1154 5hr50m 30 no1722 5hr28m ———- ——-

6/25 0444i.e. 11hr22m ———- ——-(double interval)

0959 5hr15m ———- ——-1551 5hr52m 30 yes

6/26 0926i.e, 17hr35m ———- ——-possiblynear start

(presumed triple interval)1510 5hr14m 32 yes

6/27 0932 18hr22m 32 ——(presumed triple interval)


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over, “There goes Jet again!”As was the case last year,

Fountain’s eruptions are beginning froman empty crater. All of the eruptionsthat I saw began with a sudden splash-up from the right-hand side of thecrater, and quickly built in force. Sincethere is no sudden rise of the pool’swater level to gauge, the start maycatch some observers off-guard. Theeruptions themselves were superb.Most of them took place in excellentviewing conditions, with sunny skiesand a southerly breeze to clear away thesteam. Many bursts impressed me asreaching 60-70 feet high. A few of thosebursts spread out almost equally aswide. Fountain also showed a certainamount of “bubble blowing” behavior.With some bursts, the base of the watercolumn appeared to be very blue. Wealso observed frequent doming of thepool, also very blue in color, which wasfollowed by a pronounced “popping”sound.

“Clepsydra’s steam vent” did notactivate with any of the Fountaineruptions that I saw. Tara Crossmentioned that it has not been veryactive this year.

Over the years, a number of gazers,Ralph Taylor among them, haveremarked to me that they think Fountainis an underrated geyser, and that it doesnot get the attention that it deserves. Itis worth watching.

Non geyser-related: With wetweather continuing well into June, thewildflower show in the park should bespectacular this year. There were largepatches of fringed gentian and yellowmonkey flowers all over the UpperGeyser Basin. Pale orange Indianpaintbrush was appearing here andthere. Arrowleaf balsamroot wasblooming profusely around the “volca-nic tableland” area near Fountain andalong the roadside at Midway. Therewere scattered patches of lupinesaround Madison campground.

I saw an osprey around the UpperGeyser Basin nearly every day. A familyof mergansers was seen every morningin the Firehole River, just upstream fromthe bridge below Castle Geyser.American avocets were observed in thepond in the meadow across from Geyser

Hill. Large “nursery herds” of bisonwere present throughout the weekaround both the Upper and Lowerbasins. One of these herds, estimated at75-80 animals, passed directly aroundboth sides of the boardwalk while wewere waiting at Grand on 6/22, justyards away from several hundred tensebut thrilled onlookers. The boardwalkswere icy on the morning of 6/22, and wehad heavy frosts the nights of 6/22-23and 6/26-27. I just missed the chance tosee a grizzly bear chasing an elk calfacross the meadow above RiversideGeyser on the morning of 6/24. I was atGrotto at the time, and did hear thebaby elk yelping in alarm.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe have already reached the end of

June, and as always, the geysers are upto their usual tricks. I would like tothank the many geyser gazers who were

present in Yellowstone during my visitfor pleasant conversations, occasionalbits of shared data, and general camara-derie. In addition to those who arementioned in the main body of thearticle, I would also like to thank MikeNewcomb, Rob Haker, Bob and EmilyBailey, Jere Bush, Dave DeWitt, MaryBeth Schwarz, and Barbara Lasseter.

Thanks once again to Scott Bryanfor his daily postings to the GeysersMailing List, which helped to fill in afew data items, as well as the first fewintervals on Beehive following mydeparture.

REFERENCE CITEDBryan, Scott. Various informal

postings, Geysers Mailing List,[email protected], 6/22-30,2009. Accessed via Windows Live®Hotmail, 7/1 – 7/5.

by Andrew Hafner

Fountain Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, June 22, 2009


26

For the August 2009 issue of TheSput, I have prepared a short summaryof impacts of the tremors on intervals ofselected “major” geysers, rather than afull-length article about the 1959Hebgen Lake Earthquake. (Full lengtharticles will probably return in theDecember issue.)

Activity levels of the six “predictedgeysers” (Castle, Daisy, Grand, OldFaithful, Riverside, and Great Fountain)plus Beehive and Fountain are shown inTable 1. The comparison includes datafor 1958 through 1964. Data was takenfrom George D. Marler’s annual reportsof “Hot Spring Activity in the GeyserBasins of the Firehole River.” The datagenerally included data for “theseason”—April or May throughOctober, with the exception of 1959when post-quake data often extendedthrough December. In some cases post-quake activity in 1959 didn’t stabilizeuntil a few weeks or months after thetremors. In those cases, data fromNovember and/or December 1959 wasused where such data was available.

Fountain Geyser sustained the mostsevere drop in activity level followingthe 1959 earthquake. It erupted onAugust 18, 1959, then went dormantuntil the winter of 1962-1963. During the1963 season Fountain had minoreruptions. The minor eruptions oc-curred about every twelve minutes andlasted four minutes, so Fountain was ineruption about one-third of the time.But the eruptions were only 10 to 15feet in height. During the 1964 seasonFountain had both major and minoreruptions. Intervals between minorslengthened to 12 to 18 minutes;durations remained at four minutes. Thefrequency of major eruptions wasirregular. Some of the major eruptionslasted over two hours. Height of themajor eruptions sometimes reached 30to 40 feet.

Beehive Geyser erupted with aboutthe same frequency in 1959 before theearthquake as it had in 1959. Following

the earthquake the activity levelincreased. Intervals between eruptionsdecreased significantly in 1960, when itwas erupting every two to three daysinstead of only once or twice a week.However, very few eruptions wereobserved in 1961, 1962, and 1963. Fiveyears after the tremors, in 1964, theactivity increased such that Beehivewas seen in eruption about once aweek—about half as frequently as ithad in 1958.

The change in Daisy Geyser’sactivity pattern was quite similar to thatof Beehive. Immediately after theearthquake, Daisy’s eruptions weretwice as frequent as they had been prior

to the earthquake—60 minutes aftercompared with 138 minutes before thequake. The average interval in 1960—143 minutes—was just 5 minutes longerthan it had been before the quake—138minutes. But then Daisy went dormantfor a few years and by 1964 had only “afew eruptions” during the 1964 season.

Grand Geyser also went dormantfollowing the 1959 earthquake and didnot erupt again until February 19, 1960.The number of eruptions observed eachseason from 1960 through 1964 gradu-ally increased until it was eruptingabout once a day in 1964 compared withthree times a day prior to the earth-quake.

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS AND A LITTLE BIT OF THAT: COMPARATIVEACTIVITY OF SELECTED GEYSERS BEFORE AND AFTER THE 1959HEBGEN LAKE EARTHQUAKE

by Lynn Stephens

by Graham Meech

Daisy Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, September 1, 2007


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Old Faithful Geyser’s averageinterval increased in the monthsfollowing the earthquake—from anaverage of 60.8 minutes in 1959 prior tothe quake to an average of 67.4 minutesin the remaining months of 1959.Although the average dropped slightlyin the 1960-1963 seasons, it was still67.1 minutes in 1964. Most sourcesindicate the 1959 earthquake added sixto seven minutes to Old Faithful’saverage interval.

Three geysers—Castle, GreatFountain, and Riverside—exhibitedincreased activity levels that weresustained over the five years followingthe earthquake, as shown in Figure 1.Castle Geyser’s average prior to thequake was 15h53m. Following thetremors the average for the remainder of1959 was 9h03m. In 1964 the averagewas still 9h07m. Great FountainGeyser’s average prior to the earth-quake in 1959 was 9h02m. Following thetemblor the average for the remainder of1959 was about 7h30m. In 1964 theaverage was still 7h45m. RiversideGeyser’s 1959 average prior to theearthquake was 7h27m. After the 1959earthquake, Riverside’s average intervaldropped almost an hour, to 6h28m. Theaverage increased in 1960-1962,reaching a peak in 1962 of 7h12m. Theaverage decreased in each of 1963 and1964, dropping under the post-quake1959 average to 6h20m in 1964.

Figure 1: Average Interval of Geysers Whose Activity Increased Following the 1959 Earthquake

by Pat Snyder

Great Fountain Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, August 31, 2008


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Table 1: Comparative Intervals of Selected Geysers, Pre- and Post-1959 Earthquake

Geyser Pre Quake Post-QuakeData 1958 1959 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964

BeehiveAverage 66hNo. oferuptions 2 per IncreasedMay-Oct. week 28 activity ~144 9 5 3 22

CastleMinimum 14:13 13:00 7:38 8:22 8:00 7:00 7:40Average 14:33 15:53 9:03 9:30 9:28 8:50 9:36 9:07Maximum 16:05 18:58 10:23 10:35 10:45 10:07 10:30

DaisyMinimum 90m 86m 45m 77Average 116m 138m 60m 143 A fewMaximum 170m 200m 90m 240 in late FewEruptions Dormant summer Dormant eruptions

FountainNo. oferuptions Minor MajorsMay -Oct. 52 1 Dormant Dormant Dormant Dormant eruptions and minors

GrandMinimum 6:49 6:07 Dormant 3d 24h 13h 16h 8-1/2hAverage 8:32 9:02 12d 31h28m 24hMaximum 12:40 11:00 31d 9d 125h 101h20m 30hNo. oferuptionsMay-Oct. 28 47 98 125 182

Great FountainMinimum 9:15 6:07 3:10 5:30 4:55 5:50 6:02Average 12:24 9:02 ~7:30 7:30 7:50 7:46 7:51 7:45Maximum 15:06 11:00 9:15 9:40 9:37 9:00 10:18

Old FaithfulMinimum 35m 33m 36m 35m 35m 39m 38m 31mAverage 62.8m 60.8m 67.4m 66.3m 66.3m 66.3m 65.0m 67.1mMaximum 90m 85m 96m 98m 94m 95m 95m 96m

RiversideMinimum 6:46 6:23 6:13 6:05 6:30 6:10 5:30Average 7:02 7:27 6:28 6:36 7:08 7:12 7:06 6:20Maximum 7:48 8:04 7:36 7:45 7:34 7:45 7:02

Source: Marler’s Annual Reports of Hot Spring Activity in the Geyser Basins of the Firehole River.

Overall, geyser gazers were treatedfavorably by four of these geysers in2008 than they would have been in theearly 1960s. In 2008 Beehive, Grand,Fountain, and Daisy were fairly reliableperformers. Beehive generally had atleast five or six daylight eruptions eachweek during the 2008 season comparedwith one about every eight days in1964. Fountain erupted three or fourtimes a day in 2008 compared withexhibiting only minor eruptions in the

early part of 1964 and then interspers-ing some major eruption amongst theminor eruptions in the latter part of theseason. In 2008 Daisy erupted aboutevery two hours. Daisy had eruptedabout every two hours in 1964, but only“during two days when Daisy’s Thiefwas intermittently active.” The rest ofthe time Daisy was dormant. Granderupted about three times a day in 2008instead of only once a day as it wasdoing in 1964.

Intervals of two of the three geyserswhose intervals decreased following the1959 earthquake still have intervalsbelow those of 1959 before the earth-quake. Castle’s 2008 overall average of11h54m was still four hours below the15h53m 1959 pre-quake average.Riverside Geyser’s average interval in2008 of 6h11m was over an hour lessthan the pre-quake 1959 averageinterval of 7h27m.


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Only two of the geysers included inthis comparison were erupting lessfrequently in 2008 than they had priorto the 1959 earthquake. GreatFountain’s 2008 average of 12h11m wasabout three hours above the 1958average of 9h02m. Additional earth-quakes between 1964 and 2008 raisedOld Faithful’s average above 90minutes, but it was still possible to see

this major geyser several times duringdaylight each and every day of the year.

Generally, it was much easier to seethese geysers in 20081 than it had beenin 1959.

(Footnotes)1 Thank you to Yellowstone

National Park for providing temperaturedata and Ralph Taylor for analyzing thetemperature data to convert it to

eruption times. Thank you also to RalphTaylor for computing the average(mean) intervals for Great Fountain andRiverside for the 2008 calendar year.The 2008 overall season average (mean)interval for Castle was computed usingeruption times provided by RalphTaylor.

JUNE AND EARLY JULY 2009 GEYSER ACTIVITYcompiled by Tara Cross and Ben Hoppe

Now that the summer season is infull swing, gazers are finally getting agood geyser fix, and there is a lot ofinformation for the geyser activitysummary. I’m going to try a new formatthis time, working collaboratively withRalph Taylor’s electronic data summa-ries and Lynn Stephens’ activityreports. Also, Ben Hoppe has agreed tohelp with this column while he enjoyshis first summer working in Yellow-stone. Big thanks to Lynn, Ralph, Ben,and everyone who shared geyserreports on the listserv.

Before I begin, I need to correctsome errors from the Spring 2009 GeyserActivity column (Sput vol. 23, No. 3).First, please disregard the report of oddintervals for Old Faithful on May 2.There was a typographical error in thelogbook files and in my rush to finishthe summary, I failed to double-checkthe data. Lesson learned! Also, I hadthe year wrong for the last Giantesseruption; it should have been February17, 2009, not 2008. And, the correctname is Botryoidal Spring, not Botryoi-dal Geyser. I knew there would be somemistakes in my first go-round; hopefullyI’ll do better in the future.

Electronic data collected by RalphTaylor for June and early July aresummarized in the accompanying table.Ben Hoppe contributed an excellentactivity summary for the month of June.My additions are indicated with myinitials (TC). Geysers covered in LynnStephens’ activity report are notedthusly. Take it away, Ben!

As my first full season in Yellow-stone began, I caught one of the firstreported Rocket majors of the season

by Pat Snyder

Little Squirt, Upper Geyser Basin, May 23, 2009

on May 22, 2009 in waning sunlight.Not long after that for nearly every dayfor over three weeks, we got rain, sleet,hail, and snow, and whatever you call itwhen you mix all four of them together.Needless to say, good geyser gazingopportunities started to be few and farbetween. The weather didn’t keep thegazers out of the basin. As late Junerolled around, so did the sun and warmweather as though it was opening itswide arms for the peak season forgeyser gazers and tourists alike.

UPPER GEYSER BASINOld Faithful Geyser: Still active.

Still faithful.GEYSER HILLLittle Squirt Geyser: Active, but

eruptions are not as common as in pastyears.

Plume Geyser: Consistent withintervals between 55-80 minutes.

Beehive Geyser is being very niceto anyone visiting the park so far thisyear. Eruption intervals have variedfrom just a little over 11 hours to near 20hours. The intervals are at a 14.5 houraverage. It’s not extremely uncommonto have 2 daylight eruptions. Indicatorhas been reliable, but as short as 5minutes and as long as 20. Eruptionsfrom Little Squirt have seemed to makeBeehive erupt on the shorter side,generally around the 12 hour mark.

Depression Geyser is not easy tocatch, unfortunately. I can’t wait for theday when intervals are back in the 6-8hour range. An interval between 13-15hours is most common.


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Geyser name End Date Min Mean Median Max

Beehive 7-Jul-09 11:04 14:15 13:49 23:15

Depression 7-Jul-09 10:27 14:00 13:37 30:46

Lion (series) 7-Jul-09 06:19 11:07 10:37 18:15

Little Cub 7-Jul-09 00:34 00:47 00:41 16:11

Little Squirt 7-Jul-09 82:55 106:36 89:02 190:07

Plate 7-Jul-09 00:06 15:08 05:33 166:02

Plume 7-Jul-09 00:47 01:04 01:04 01:47

Artemisia 7-Jul-09 08:17 18:54 19:20 30:11

Castle (w/o minors) 7-Jul-09 12:19 13:37 13:36 15:12

Castle (minor-major) 7-Jul-09 03:51 06:28 05:27 10:42

Castle (1st post minor) 7-Jul-09 14:16 15:02 14:43 16:58

Daisy 7-Jul-09 01:54 02:20 02:17 03:34

Grand 7-Jul-09 06:28 09:17 09:14 11:35

Grotto 7-Jul-09 00:26 08:14 06:21 39:19

Rift 7-Jul-09 08:26 18:04 19:01 24:06

Riverside 7-Jul-09 05:46 06:07 05:59 06:36

Riverside (Long) 7-Jul-09 06:19 06:27 06:27 06:36

Riverside (Short) 7-Jul-09 05:46 05:56 05:57 06:10

West Triplet 7-Jul-09 01:46 07:19 07:03 13:28

Spouter Geyser 4-Jul-09 02:38 03:55 03:41 07:21

Fountain Geyser 5-Jul-09 04:36 06:04 06:04 07:11

Great Fountain 5-Jul-09 08:55 11:45 11:33 16:20

Electronic data collected and summarized by Ralph Taylor for June and early July 2009

Little Cub Geyser: Active as usual.Lion Geyser: Active. Erupting in

series, multiple series of 3+ have beenseen.

North Goggle Geyser: Dormant.Aurum Geyser: The beauty of the

late spring rain was the extremeregularity of Aurum. I personally wasable to spend a totally of 25 minuteswaiting for it and come out with 3eruptions from the start. It’s starting to

become a little more erratic with thewarm, dry weather. Intervals in Junewere ranging from 3 to 9.5 hours with anaverage of about 4.5 hours.

Plate Geyser: TC: Eruptions becamemore frequent starting in early July, withtwo or three eruptions seen on somedays. Maybe it was telling us Giantesswas about to erupt?

Boardwalk Geyser: Dormant.

TC: To the joy of both gazers in thepark and those watching on thewebcams, Giantess Geyser had its firsteruption since February 17 at 0713 onJuly 6. Scott Bryan observed the startfrom the Lower Hams parking lot, andgazers hurried to the Hill for the “goodpart.” It was a “mixed phase” eruptionwith a short initial water phase thatturned to steam with a nice roar andcreated a curtain of spray that made for


31

by T Scott Bryan


beautiful rainbows. Giantess continuedto erupt through the day on July 7.Vault Geyser had its initial at 1212, withnice thumps and a 20-minute duration.

Dome Geyser: Seen active a coupletimes so far in late spring and earlysummer.

CASTLE-GRAND GROUPCastle Geyser: Active with the

usual, unfortunate minors.Sawmill Group: Sawmill Geyser has

been very active again this summer, butnot in complete control of the complex.There have been numerous Tardycycles, they seem to be happeningalmost daily which means Penta is quiteactive. It’s not uncommon for PentaGeyser to erupt 4-5 days a week.Unfortunately, even though there havebeen some reported Churn Geyser

by LC Daugherty by Nellie Daugherty

eruptions, we haven’t had any Penta-Churn cycles observed. Uncertain hasbeen quite common to see as well as ithas eruptions multiple times a week.

Grand Geyser continued to defy itshandy 4-hour window in June and July,with intervals ranging anywhere from 6½ hours to a little over 12 hours. Theonly consolation is that we have seenmultiple three burst eruptions alreadythis summer, and there are hopefullymore to come. Lynn has providedfurther analysis of Grand’s activity inher report.


Vault Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, July 6, 2009


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West Triplet Geyser and RiftGeyser are active daily as well. Rift hasbeen acting normally in the sense that itmanages to provide lovely delays wheneruption near or in Grand’s window.

“The Sputniks” have been ob-served almost daily erupting frommultiple vents, some with clearer waterand others with a muddy appearance.

DOWN BASINOblong Geyser is active, but it is

quite erratic. Some intervals as short asjust over 4 hours have been seen whilesome well over 8 hours have been seen.For a few days in mid-June, Oblongbecame a little more regular with someintervals in the 4-5 hour range. Theaverage interval is right around 6 hours.

Giant Geyser Group: About thesame time the 4-5 hour intervals inOblong Geyser were observed, it wasnoted that Bijou was beginning topause. Note that in late May and earlyJune, Bijou was not having pauses, andrarely any slowdowns with the excep-tion of after a Grotto Marathon. Itlooked to me like Bijou was in marathonuntil the happy day when I noticedBijou slowing down, and then yes,pausing. Unfortunately, there have beenno reported hot periods, and definitelyno eruptions since February from GiantGeyser.

Grotto Geyser: Marathons areoccurring every few days. Not all, butmost eruptions are being preceded byGrotto Fountain.

Rocket Geyser is active as well.Eruptions have come from over an hourinto the Grotto eruption to a little over 3hours into the Grotto eruption, butthere are Grotto Geyser eruptionswithout Rockets as well. On June 25,there were two major eruptions withinsix hours of each other.

Daisy Geyser is generally havingconsistent intervals every day. Intervalshave been recorded as just under 2hours with some over 3 hours occurringon especially windy days. Mostintervals seem to be fairly regularbetween 2 hours and 2.5 hours.

Splendid Geyser. Dormant.MORNING GLORY GROUPRiverside Geyser: Active and

regular erupting anywhere from justunder 6 hours to just under 7 hours.

Link Geyser: On June 8, I noticedsignificant wash next to the trail. Therunoff channel into the river wasbleached white. It was all fairly dry andhaving minors at 1200, so sometime

before then, there was a major eruption.Fan and Mortar Geysers: TC: After

the eruption overnight May 30-31, therock pile awakened from its springhiatus during June, and as of mid-July

by Ben Hoppe

Rocket Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, June 25, 2009

by Tom Dunn

Fan and Mortar Geysers, Upper Geyser Basin, June 20, 1992


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had settled into fairly regular intervalsbetween 4 ½ and 5 ½ days. Few eventcycles were seen until July, when theybecame more frequent. So far, 2009event cycle behavior does not appear tohave changed significantly from whatwas seen in 2008. I observed aneruption event cycle on June 29, andLynn Stephens shared her notes oneruption cycles on July 8 and 13. Allthree eruptions were preceded by twoRiver pauses and splashing in MainVent that could start 50 to 80 minutesbefore the start. Bottom Vent’s activityvaried from heavy splashing to fulleruptions. On July 8, Lynn and otherswitnessed the first known Upper Mortarinitiated eruption since August 2, 2004.The other two observed eruptionsstarted from a classic lock. The follow-ing is a list of eruptions in May, June,and July:Date Time IntervalMay 30-31 overnight I >35dJune 12 2029ie I ~12¾dJune 18-19 overnight I ~6¼dJune 23 1129ns I ~4½dJune 29 0032 I ~5d13h03mJuly 3-4 overnight I ~5dJuly 8 2026 I ~4¾dJuly 13 1730 I =4d31h04mJuly 17-18 overnight I~4½d

Spiteful Geyser: No reports sincethe reported winter eruption.

OLD ROAD GROUPArtemisia Geyser has continued to

be very erratic, erupting once andsometimes twice a day. See electronicmonitor table.

The activity of Atomizer Geyserand Slide Geyser are summarized inLynn’s report.

PIPELINE MEADOWS GROUPSeveral gazers have reported PMG-

2 in eruption in May and June. I haveheard reports that Dilapidated isprobably active, but no eruptions havebeen reported.

MYRIAD GROUPLittle Brother Geyser is still active.

Intervals have been about every 30-40seconds with eruptions lasting only afew seconds.

BISCUIT BASINOn a few of my trips through Biscuit

Basin, I have seen Rusty Geyser, IslandSpouter, and Shell Spring all active.

by Dave DeWitt

Artemisia and Atomizer Geysers, Upper Geyser Basin, August 9, 2007

by Pat Snyder

PMG-2, Upper Geyser Basin, May 25, 2009


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Jewel Geyser is erupting about every 7minutes. Sapphire Pool is act-, nope,never mind, just kidding. It’s just abeautiful blue pool. Black Diamond hasnot been seen to have had a fulleruption since Hank Heasler was doinghis walk with the researchers throughBiscuit. However, Scott Bryan, reportedseeing some six-foot eruptions in lateJune. Karen Low reported that GreenBubbler was active on June 6, eruptingbriefly to ~4 ft. at an interval of 21minutes. Avoca Spring is still notanywhere near the activity it was at lastyear, unfortunately. Some splashes canbe seen above the right side of thecrater, but that’s it.

BLACK SAND BASINCliff Geyser’s activity is summa-

rized in Lynn’s report.MIDWAY GEYSER BASINFlood Geyser, West Flood Geyser,

and Till Geyser are summarized inLynn’s report.

On my trip back to Fairy Falls/Imperial near the beginning of summer,Spray Geyser was active. “New”Imperial Geyser was in eruption moreoften than not. Bursts over 50 feet werenot uncommon, very impressive.

LOWER GEYSER BASINActivity of features on Firehole

Lake Drive are summarized in Lynn’sreport.

Fountain Geyser is active withintervals ranging from 5 to 7 hours.Eruptions of Fountain are sometimesaccompanied by ‘Morning’s Thief’Geyser , but not always. This year it’snot uncommon to see ‘Morning’s Thief’overflow and boil into the dormantMorning Geyser, then fizzle out and donothing more. When it did erupt, itcould have 1, 2, or 3 sets of bursts.Clepsydra, Jet, Spasm, Super FryingPan, Twig, and New BellefontaineGeysers are all active. Lynn Stephensreported that Jet’s activity has beencontrolled by the cycles of SuperFrying Pan.

TC: In the Kaleidoscope Group,Drain, Honeycomb, Honey’s Vent, oneof the larger vents in Deep Blue, NTFL,and Kaleidoscope Geysers have allbeen seen this summer. Honeycombwas sometimes seen multiple times perday. Lynn Stephens pointed out that

by Pat Snyder

Jewel Geyser, Biscuit Basin, May 29, 2009

by Dave DeWitt

Cliff Geyser, Black Sand Basin, July 10, 2008


35

these eruptions were not the majoreruptions referred to in The Geysers ofYellowstone, but rather “minor” erup-tions of variable length. Some eruptionshad only one burst, but most hadmultiple bursts.

TC: Several gazers have visited theRiver Group and reported that Dark Pooland Brain Geyser were both active.Pocket Geyser appears to be dormant.

NORRIS GEYSER BASINNot much has been reported about

Norris so far this year. Access toMonarch, Fearless, and other featuresalong that section of trail is extremelylimited due boardwalk constructionthough it is left open on holidays.Steamboat Geyser has not had a majoreruption since 2005. I was there the daybefore a nice little tremor occurred in lateJune, and the minors were South-dominated but put out a nice bit ofrunoff.

Echinus Geyser was full, bubbling,overflowing, very red, but not erupting.Apparently the late June earthquake didnot induce any eruptions either.

Constant and Ledge Geysers haveboth been reported, though I did not seeeither of them in the short time that I wasthere.

WEST THUMB GEYSER BASINTC: Lone Pine Geyser is active, with

most intervals in the 20 to 26 hour range.See electronic monitor table. OccasionalGeyser was erupting at intervals of 23 to31 minutes according to the logbook.

I visited West Thumb the same day Ivisited Norris, and Yellowstone Lake wasstill well above Fishing Cone andLakeshore Geyser. The water wasprecisely even with the top of Big Cone.Twin Geysers have dropped from lastyears water levels to below overflow andnot boiling.

LONE STAR GEYSER BASINTC: Per visitor reports, Lone Star

Geyser is active in the same manner asprevious years, with majors occurring atintervals of approximately 3 hours.

SHOSHONE GEYSER BASINNo reports from Shoshone yet this

year. The mosquitoes in the Upper Basinare worse than they ever have been. Ihate to think what they are like on thetrail to Shoshone.

by Dave DeWitt

Imperial Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, September 22, 2007by Dave DeWitt

Spray Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, September 22, 2007


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by Dan Miller

Giantess Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, July 6, 2009;[Editors’ Note: We wanted to share several of the photos sent to us of this relatively rare geyser!]

Documents

A Bimonthly Publication of The Geyser Founded September 12 ... · be. But they told us about your organi-zation and they felt certain you’d be able to identify it. We would certainly