Geysers by Moonlight, night Gazing in Yellowstone.

I suppressed a shiver, gripped my pencil tighter, and tugged my hood further down over my face. Cold mountain wind knifed through me as I stared at the steaming pool before me, Depression was due, very due. Suddenly I caught movement, clicking on my headlamp I observed water pouring over the large sinter rim of the jagged crater.  Finally.

The first jet caught me by surprise, making me jump in my folding chair as it blasted through the pool. After that, my smile widened as Depression Geyser threw water up to ten feet, it was a strong eruption. Of course it had to be at night. 

It's been 2 weeks in Yellowstone, and of course, when I'm not at work, I'm out in the basin. However, many of my shifts have me getting off at 7-9:30 pm, the gazing takes place early morning and in the evening. But it has made me realize that night time gazing is different from gazing during the day time, your senses increase in sensitivity, the smallest splash makes your head swivel looking for a source. You play everything by ear. 

I almost enjoy night gazing more than I do day gazing because of how much more in depth it is. No distractions of crowds, or car horns, or radio transmissions. It boils (pun intended) completely down to your own observational skills and experience, there's no group of older gazers to tell you what to look for, your entering into a whole new playing field with the Geyser. It's just a chess game of time and observing patterns to figure out what it's going to do. And that's what Geyser Gazing is all about.

Watching the Sawmill Group under the stars Photo Courtsey of Will Boekel.

Geologic Pit Stop: Dry Falls, Eastern Washington.

Earlier this week, while I was planning my  route to take to yellowstone, I decided to take a slight detour up to the north. Directly in the heart of eastern Washington lay a province known as the Channeled Scablands. This area is named for the massive canyons, or "Coulees" that pockmark the area. (Coulee? Sounds familiar, as if there's a large landmark in the state that has that word in its name, comment below if you know!) 

These Coulees are some of the most fascinating geological features in Washington State. Not just because of the Coulees themselves. (which are awesome!) But because of the massive geological event(s) that created them. 

15,000 years ago during the last major ice age, a massive ice sheet smothered the entirety of Canada and much of the present day northern United States in a sheet of ice that in some places was 5,000 feet thick.

Part of this large ice sheet, a lobe, desceded through the mountains of present day northern Idaho, and completely blocked a river valley with a wall at least 1,000 feet high. The River in the valley backed up. Eventually creating a massive Glacial Lake that covered an area more than Lake Superior and Lake Ontario combined, and submerged the present location of Missoula Montana under 1,000 feet of water. 

One day however. As the temperatures increased. The ice dam collapsed, and Glacial Lake Missoula poured through the opening, the almost incomprehensible torrent tearing right towards Eastern Washington. Once the massive flood reached the brittle Basalt Flats covering the area, the sheer power and force of the water dug deep channels into the bedrock, creating the coulees we see today. 

Dry falls is located in the biggest (aptly named Grand Coulee. It is where the floods created a huge waterfall, hundreds of times bigger than Navada Falls in New York.  And you can see where this waterfall was, ad what damage it did to the rock. Along highway 17 there is a visitor center perched right along the "brink" of the falls. It tells the geological and human history of the area, and also sells books and posters on the subject. 

I stayed at this visitor center for about 20 minutes before hopping back into Ol Bess' and continuing my journey. Very excited for what geological adventure ill have next!

Morning Geyser, Reclusive sentinel of the Lower Geyser Basin

Last summer, there were several geyser events that occurred in Yellowstone National Park that had set the geyser gazing community abuzz with excitement. One of the most significant events was the reawakening of one of the most powerful geysers in the park; Morning Geyser. Located in the  Lower Geyser Basin, North of Old Faithful, Morning Geyser is a sight to see. It's eruptions are capable of being 200 feet tall and 100 feet wide, and when viewed on a clear sunny day, the pictures themselves are breathtaking. 

Morning Geyser, May 6, 2013. Photo Curtsey of Maureen M.

Morning erupted for the first time in 18 years on June 20, 2012. The news spread like wildfire, and soon gazers were arriving at the park in droves to try to get a glimpse of this possibly once-in-a-lifetime event. And on the bright sunny morning of June 21, 2012, More than a dozen gazers witnessed Morning rise and erupt in all of it's splendor at 10:40. 

 

Video by Tara Cross

 If you listen closely in the video and turn up the volume, just before the large bursts, you can hear a muffled "WHUMPH". The origin of this sound comes from a amazing phenomena that only happens in a handful of geysers around the world; the blue bubble. blue bubbles form when the entire conduit underneath the pool of the geyser is filled with steam, the pressure from the steam pushes the remaining water out all at once, but instead of spraying in all directions immediately, the surface tension of the water holds it together as a massive azure blue bubble for a split second, before it explodes and sends water bursting in all directions. 

Classic Blue Bubble at Strokkur Geyser in Iceland, Blue bubbles almost always occur at the onset of this geyser's eruptions. Photo curtsey of www.wjla.com via google images.

At Morning, there are numerous blue bubbles during it's eruptions, and although I have yet to see a picture of an intact blue bubble at Morning, there are some incredible photo's taken directly after one bursts. Such as below. Once again, this is the May 6th eruption. 

Photo Curtsey of Maureen M.

After it's initial eruptions on June 20 and 21, Morning continued to sporadically be active throughout the rest of the summer, although erupting days apart, making it extremely difficult to catch. I myself missed morning by about a day last year, but I'll be darned if I miss it again this summer. After the summer crowds and geyser enthusiasts trickled out of the park, Morning's activity remained relatively a mystery throughout the late fall and early winter. 

However, we did have two huge advantages. The first was the wonderful and gracious observations of tour guides running snow tours past Morning during the winter. They would look for tell-tale signs of Morning's activity for us; checking to see if runoff channels were free of snow (the warm water from the geyser would melt the snow filling the channels) and observing if Fountain Geyser (the much more frequent geyser that resides in the crater in front of Morning) was throwing out more rocks than usual or behaving differently (they are indirectly connected). The second advantage was the presence of an electronic data monitor at Fountain, which picked up many Fountain Geyser abnormally long duration eruptions. usually these eruptions mean that Morning erupted during the event, although it's not certain at all. But we now are at least near certain that Morning was active throughout the winter of 2012-13. 

Morning's runoff channel melted free of snow on 1/29/13. Photo curtsey of Yellowstone Tour Guides

 Finally, after several months of uncertainty Yellowstone Tour Guides photographed an eruption on March 8, and then there was even second eruption 5 hours later! Morning was alive! The anticipation was excruciating leading up to the park's official opening in late April. Finally the gates opened and a gazer that is well known for studying the group of geysers that Morning's a part of began to observe that area daily. Then, on May 3, 2013, she witnessed a spectacular event as Morning and Fountain Geysers erupted together for almost a half hour, an event which had only happened probably only once before in this current eruptive phase. 

 

After this awesome event, Morning erupted 2 days later on the 5th of May, and then yet again on the 6th. Since then there have been at least 5 events, you can see the latest activity of Morning here. As of this writing, Morning's last eruption was on the morning of May 25, 2013 at 0557 in the morning. There is speculation that Morning could be starting to begin a new extremely active period of activity similar to that of it's activity in 1994, where it erupted like clockwork almost every 3-6 hours. One can only hope!

I forgot to mention one thing. Morning's name. Morning is one of those geysers that hates wind, if there's a lot of wind, Morning (usually) won't erupt. At Morning's location, the wind intensifies most during the afternoon, so the majority of its eruptions take place during the Morning, hence the name!