| Comments: | We arrived at Steamboat in the late morning and settled in with Udo, later to be joined by Dave DeWitt. North Vent (NV) was weak and lethargic; I barely saw any vertical play from it until mid-afternoon. South Vent (SV) seemed to be leading the minor play. I was a bit disoriented given that this was the opposite of the dominant activity I watched last year before the 09/12 0423 eruption. SV would engage in sustained vertical play by itself or with only wispy angled jetting from NV. The first concerted, sustained vertical jetting after we arrived occurred at 1424. After this there was a bit of a lull until late afternoon/early evening, and as the activity picked back up, NV progressively started attaining thicker jets and initiating concerted play. Carol joined us for a while and gave me some more context for the SV activity observed this season. Another minor with sustained vertical play from both vents occurred at 1836. Soon after this, Ruby and I left for the parking lot to eat dinner and switch out our gear. Udo left and then Dave left. This is when we made the fatal mistake of spreading out our things on the upper platform to prep for a nighttime wait authorized under research permit YELL-2019-SCI-8104. In hindsight, I should not have ignored NV becoming increasingly stronger. Finally at 2045 we observed strong vertical jetting from both vents but no wall of water formed. As I just finished writing down that time, a bigger minor initiated at 2047... and didn't stop building. From the first observed "woohoo," the eruption started only 14 minutes before sunset. Rainbow! Golden light! Us and all of our stuff becoming drenched in an instant! Small pieces of sinter pelted us along with big globs of silica-laden water as we frantically gathered our gear. My observations of the eruption are not detailed because we had to focus on our research work. Cistern was a hair below overflow when I raced past it within the first four minutes, but had popped back up by 2110. I can say the sound of this eruption varied significantly, and although light became increasingly poor, I think the initial water phase started transitioning over at 2101 and was mostly in steam phase by 2103 (D=16m). This did not last; SV returned to water and became very slightly muddy. Soon after this any jetting was indistinguishable from the surrounding steam; judging by sound alone the eruption seemed uncommitted with respect to either staying in water or steam phase. The volume of water coming down the SV runoff channel was variable but I am unsure if that was due to changing wind direction instead of eruption phase. By the time our work was completed, we were soaked and freezing so we elected to return to the upper platform. I did not note the time we left, but between 45 to 60 minutes after the eruption start, a strong return to water occurred. Even in the parking lot the sound of this eruption kept changing from louder roaring to jetting noise. Thank you to the couple from the Norris campground who helped us carry our things back to the parking lot and to Udo and Dave for being the sacrifice (sorry you missed it). Extra special thanks to Carol for a) lending us her Fenix light, b) meeting us in the parking lot so I could return her light, c) staying with us until we got into dry clothes and packed up the car, and d) documenting Cistern/Steamboat at all stages of their interval. |
Time Entered:2019-06-02 08:50:55
Time Uploaded:2019-06-02 08:50:57
Submitted to:GeyserTimes for Android