| Comments: | When I arrived around 1700, F&M appeared to be in a typical non-event cycle. Water levels were decent but not thrilling, though Bill did point out there was a considerable amount of runoff from High and Gold. It wasn't until about 1710 that High and Gold reached the "ya know, this is starting to get interesting" level. High and Gold began increasing in strength and grew rapidly in the final two minutes before the start of the eruption. By 1716 High was steady at least 10' and blowing into East Vent. First water either of us saw in Main Vent was a huge splash inside the cone no more than a second or two before both Main and East Vents took off. Even though it had gone into a classic lock, the start of the eruption was still a total shock because it had come out of what seemed like a fairly boring cycle. The eruption itself was not as strong as many I have seen, but we got a beautiful view of Fan because of Mortar's slow start. |