San Andreas Fault Zone Observatory at Depth

• The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is a component of EarthScope. EarthScope will investigate the structure and evolution of the North American continent and the physical processes controlling earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. EarthScope is funded by the National Science Foundation and conducted in partnership with the US Geological Survey.
• SAFOD is motivated by the need to answer fundamental questions about the physical and chemical processes controlling faulting and earthquake generation within a major plate-bounding fault. SAFOD will drill and instrument an inclined borehole across the San Andreas Fault Zone to a depth of 3.2 km, targeting a repeating microearthquake source. The drill site is located west of the vertical San Andreas Fault on a segment of the fault that moves through a combination of aseismic creep and repeating microearthquakes (Figure). It lies at the extreme northern end of the rupture zone of the 1966, Magnitude 6 Parkfield earthquake, the most recent in a series of events that have ruptured the fault five times since 1857. The Parkfield region is the most comprehensively instrumented section of a fault anywhere in the world, and has been the focus of intensive study for the past two decades.

(Figure ©:USGS)

See also:

• ICDP-04/04

North America, United States of America, California, San Andreas Fault Zone, near by Parkfield

35° 58' 26.5''N, 120° 33' 8.73'' W (Please scroll down to end of page for more information.)

• Pilot Hole
  • Begin of drilling June 6, 2002
  • End of drilling July 24, 2002
• Main Hole, Phase I
  • Begin of drilling June 11, 2004
  • End of drilling October 6, 2004
• Main Hole, Phase II
  • Begin of drilling June 8, 2005
  • End of drilling August 28, 2005
• Main Hole, Phase III
  • Begin of drilling June 14, 2007
  • End of drilling September 15, 2007

• EarthScope - U.S. National Science Foundation
• Earthquake Hazards Program - U.S. Geological Survey, USGS
• International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
• ICDP Germany - German Science Foundation

• Mark D. Zoback, Stanford University, Department of Geophysics
• Stephen H. Hickman, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Menlo Park, Earthquake Hazards Program - Northern California
• William L. Ellsworth, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Menlo Park, Earthquake Hazards Program - Northern California

• GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
• GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Scientific Drilling ICDP (Operational Support Group OSG/ICDP)
• Nabors Ltd.
• Stanford University, Department of Geophysics
• ThermaSource, Inc.
• U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Menlo Park, Western Earthquake Hazards Team

Active Faulting , California , Directional Drilling , Downhole Monitoring , Earthquakes , ICDP-04/04 , Parkfield , SAFOD , San Andreas Fault , U.S.A.

Monitoring and scientific evaluations are ongoing

• http://www.earthscope.org/

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