Fountain Paint Pots area update early June 2017
More changes happening in Yellowstone – which really isn’t news, but change is always fun to watch.
This time it’s in the Lower Geyser Basin in the Fountain Paint Pots area. A new vent has opened up near Clepsydra Geyser that’s known to be a fairly constant performer since the 1959 earthquake. The norm has been for it to be erupting nearly continuously except for pauses after Fountain Geyser has finished its ~30 minute show.
A hole has opened up next to it that has tossed out a good number of rocks. It appears to be active in conjunction with Clepsydra, so is likely what geyser enthusiasts often refer to as a satellite vent. Easiest just to see it. Clepsydra is the orange and white vent near the center. The satellite vent is to the right, and Spasm Geyser is splashing in the foreground. All of this is just down the boardwalk from Fountain Geyser.
This vent originally showed up as a small hole on the 19th of May that acted as a steam vent. Or at least that’s when the first report came in – not fully sure on that. Obviously it’s grown since then and seems to toss out the most rocks when restarting. The behavior of Clepsydra has also changed where it’s on and off much more often.
Clepsydra “on” during an eruption of Fountain Geyser.
Clepsydra “off” after an eruption by Fountain Geyser.
This may affect Fountain Geyser’s schedule, but at the moment Fountain seems to be erupting about every 4-ish hours, but I see on June 6, it had a 3.5 hour interval between eruptions. So, time will tell, but it’s nice having Fountain erupt so often as it’s a delightful one to catch – especially on a warm sunny day where the drops of water shine like diamonds.
If you want to catch an eruption of Fountain Geyser, check what it’s been doing over at Geyser Times.
Also in the Fountain Paint Pots area, Leather Pool (more often seen with brown microbes covering the bottom of the pool) is still warm enough to sport a lovely green color.
And one of the vents of Red Spouter is now gray.
And finally, I’ve gotten a few more images from the flight in May processed. We ended up catching Fountain Geyser in eruption as we flew over. Sweet.
These were slated to come out much earlier, but my disc drives were FULL on my computer – found out after installing a 10 TB drive that I now have over 5TB just of raw photos I’ve taken over the years. That new drive, though, opened up enough space for the Adobe products to think and I’m getting back up to speed. Also sweet.
