Unusual Activity on Geyser Hill (part 3)
Now that the Summer Season for 2018 in Yellowstone is officially over today, it’s time to celebrate the beginning of the Field Journal season. It’s time to get all those observations from the summer more formally put into the Field Journals. And what better way than to share more observations of the changes seen with the energy surge that happened on Geyser Hill in September? I feel the need to warn you, this is a long one. So grab your favorite beverage and sit back and enjoy this. It’s been tremendous fun getting this together for a blog post, and I look forward to getting this added to my field journal.
You’ll see me using UTF often. That stands for Unnamed Thermal Feature.
You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. And here’s part 3:
Continuing around Geyser Hill, I felt like I just couldn’t take in enough of the details of this energy surge (possibly a disturbance).
Exclamation Point
Earlier someone told me that Exclamation Point was erupting. When I walked up, it was splashing as high as 6 inches, but most splashes were around 3 or 4 inches high. The previous night it had been a bit higher from reports. This surprised me as my expectation was a higher eruption. At some point in the past, I’ve seen it erupting like this…but just chalked it up to “splashing” rather than an eruption. But maybe my memory on that is fuzzy as I can’t yet find photos or notes of this, or I saw this years ago and the information is buried in notebooks or hard drives somewhere.
Either way, today it was splashing – mainly from the center of the vent where larger bubbles have risen in the past. When I saw it on the 7th, it was lined with brown microbes and below overflow.
Pendant Spring
Splashing! I think I squealed with delight at the first splash I saw from this one. The splashes were 1-2 feet high and I’d estimate they came every 20-30 seconds. I didn’t time this, but it did take a pinch of patience to wait for the next one. Most of the microbes had been killed in the overflow channel until it was far enough down the hill. And looking at older photos, it looks like the vent may have opened up more than it was in the past.
Follow up: On 20 Oct 2018, I was able to see a video of this taken by the Park Geologist and shown to me by an NPS ranger. The pool has now drained nearly empty and is perpetually erupting from three small vents near the bottom of the crater.
UTF Behind Pendant | GHG-5 (AKA “Grove Geyser”)
Again, I was delighted to check this one off the “I’ve seen it!” list. This geyser was erupting up 4 or 5 feet – about half of what others told me it was doing the night before.
Ear Spring
Again! Another one to check off my list! I was eager to see Ear Spring just due to the rare eruption that reached 20-30 feet and ejected some interesting items (beer cans, a vintage pacifier, etc.). The washed area from that initial eruption was amazing. The sinter edge by the seep that showed up in early 2017 had broken into three main chunks. I would guess these will wash aside or fall into the spring with further eruptions. Steve Eide had been watching it through the morning and said that if you waited long enough, you’d see it go up 3 or 4 feet. There was too much to still see for me to wait that long. But I did catch a 3′ eruption later on. The boiling in the spring was nearly constant and seemed to come from three separate vents that I had observed in the past as bubbles would rise. An eruption consisted mainly of an increase in boiling. The highest I saw it erupt came from the vent closest to the now broken edge. At times, though, it seemed all three vents would boil furiously, nearly filling the vent with bubbles.
“Kitten Geyser”
Nobody reported seeing any eruption from “Kitten” and my observations saw it rising and falling normally, with perhaps a bit more overflow. The water was not obviously murky, but the distance from the boardwalk makes that difficult to call.
North Goggles Geyser | Goggles Spring | Lion Group
Normally, we need a long series of eruptions from Lion Geyser to provide an opportunity for North Goggles Geyser to erupt. However, with this energy surge, North Goggle Geyser started on its own and erupted every 10-20 minutes for what turned into a marathon of a series: 232 eruptions! It’s unusual not only because of the number of eruptions involved, but also because Lion Geyser went quiet. It was huffing/roaring as it does before the start of an eruption, but no eruption came. I didn’t hear (nor did I stop to watch) what happened at Goggles Spring, whether it was erupting, sending up bubbles or just staying the same.
The Lion group’s platform was very wet. I was told that the water came from the “Cubby Hole” to the side of Little Cub. “The Drinking Fountain” that sits lower on the platform was also overflowing steadily. Normally this bubbles up a couple of inches (looking very much like a drinking fountain) steadily before the initial eruption of a Lion Geyser series of eruptions. It seemed Little Cub was unchanged, but I honestly didn’t pay as much attention to it.
New Sizzling Crack in the Sinter
Then Heinrich and Suzanne came up to ask me if the crack over by Sponge had been there before. Huh? Apparently in my rush to get to Doublet Pool and Ear Spring, I completely missed this. I asked them to show me what they meant. They did – it was a crack and sizzling you could see and hear next to and under the boardwalk. It’s located about 5 side boards (the side boards or trim pieces on the boardwalk) from Sponge, and two down from the “Do Not Mark Bacteria Mat” sign. No, that was not here on the 7th. But it was the location of the dry area in the overflow from Doublet Pool. This is best seen in the video on my Instagram account. NOTE: This one did open up and erupt for awhile, but from the photos shown to me by the ranger, it looks like it settled down into a pool that’s starting to grow microbes.
Sponge & Pump Geysers and the Surrounding Area
I also learned from them that Sponge was not cycling within view anymore, Pump’s overflow (that is also filled with water from the crack that bubbles below Pump) was also less with the bacteria mat starting to dry out. The “new” UTF right by the boardwalk (GHG-13) that opened up a few years back looked absolutely the same as it did on the 7th. Plate Geyser was full of orange microbes and overflowing. No water seen in Slot. The vent that might be “Boardwalk” was steaming and the one out farther that might be “Park Place” was splashing occasionally. Model Geyser was cycling normally and another small vent near what I was thinking of as “Park Place” was steadily splashing. Perhaps this one was “Park Place”? No matter which ones they are, these were new for me to see. If anyone can identify them from the photos – I’d very much appreciate knowing what’s what out there.
UTF Across From Pump
As you head along the boardwalk toward Giantess, and you look across the boardwalk from Pump Geyser, there’s a ragged opening there that’s almost maroon in color. For the past year or so (I need to look at my notes), I’ve heard this one grumble with activity below the surface. On this visit, there were spits of water reaching above the surface. Again, a very slight and small change, but one to note.
Area Drying
Going back to the new crack under the boardwalk, it was clear that there was an ever-growing line of a dry area here. Just standing and watching the edge of the water, all of us could see it drying. The dry areas were larger than when we walked away a few minutes earlier. Perhaps this is the main dividing line for this energy surge.
I also decided to walk around to see what changes might be seen on the lower side of Geyser Hill, curious about Marmot Cave Geyser in particular.
Heart Spring was unchanged. Rather amazing.
Pot o’ Gold
The tiny vent itself was clear of microbes, but surrounding the vent a couple of inches, there was a ring of orange microbes. This small pool hasn’t overflowed in quite some time, but today it was overflowing out maybe 6″.
3 UTFs across from Pot of Gold
Across the boardwalk from Pot o’ Gold sits three unnamed thermal features (there used to be four, but one has since filled in and been covered over with overflow from above). Two sit close to the boardwalk, and the third thermal feature in this group sits farther from the boardwalk. None appeared changed as of the 16th. Note: there was extra white deposition (Opal-A?) that appeared in the left hand vent close to the boardwalk by Oct 20.
Arrowhead Spring
There was an area wet nearly down to the boardwalk indicating heavier than recently normal overflow.
Marmot Cave Geyser
I went to watch an eruption. The water that rose for the eruption at 1252 was a touch murky. Looking at photos, I thought that might be due to something from above washing dirt into the crater. There’s a good runoff channel carved there. But looking back in photos, that happened before 7 Sept 2018. There’s not much change in the mud there. So the murky water very well seems to be from the energy surge.
The Dwarfs
This year a vent opened up after the dwarf that erupted as a perpetual spouter for so long went quiet. This vent could be the “original Red Spouter” according to Tara Cross, but it’s hard to say given how much this area shifts and changes. The vent is a rectangular opening that has an angled rock within it upon which water has been seen sloshing and splashing this year. On the 16th, this water was murky/muddy and was splashing through a new hole near it. It seems this is part of the same pool. Note: On 20 Oct 2018, there was yet another small opening.
I worked my way back around to head to the Lower Store for a late lunch. 1259 | Copper Kettle in overflow. 1302 | “Tangram” (UTF Next to Plume) was empty as I walked by. The UTF behind “Tangram” (“Ballcap” ?) was sloshing, but not erupting. 1303 | Water rising in “Tangram” – clear water. This area looks largely unchanged at the moment. 1305 | Silver Spring water was visible, but below the back catch basin. Bronze was below overflow, clear with slow bubbles rising. Little Squirt was off. At lunch, I was told about an earthquake on the 7th. The waiter that told me about it said he and his wife woke up suddenly in their trailer. He got up and went out to check because it felt like someone had hit the trailer with a car. Quite a jolt. But nobody was there, and no damage seen, so they assumed it was an earthquake. I haven’t checked to see if there was an earthquake recorded or not, so am just reporting what I was told.
Items found in Ear Spring
Before leaving the basin, I asked to see the items retrieved from Ear Spring. While there are quite a few interesting items – a couple of beer cans, coins, bobby pins and straws and other trash, the most interesting item to me was an old pacifier. The rangers thought it might have been from the 1930s or 40s. Was there a child who was upset losing it? Or could that child have chosen to give it up by choosing a spring in which to toss it? Back then, they didn’t understand how much damage items tossed into springs could cause. We know better now – and anyway, this is Wonderland. No coins are needed because wishes are readily heard here. For more information about the items found, watch the FB Live video by the NPS Rangers.
