San Andreas Fault Zone Observatory at Depth
Description
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:
Location
North America, United States of America, California, San Andreas Fault Zone, near by Parkfield
Coordinates
35° 58' 26.5''N, 120° 33' 8.73'' W (Please scroll down to end of page for more information.)
Project Start and End
- 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
Programs and Funding
- 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
Principal Investigators
- Mark D. Zoback, Stanford University, Department of Geophysics
- Stephen Hoyt 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
Partners and Contractors
- GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Computing Center
- GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Scientific Drilling, (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
Keywords
Active Faulting, California, Directional Drilling, Downhole Monitoring, Earthquakes, ICDP-2004/04, Parkfield, SAFOD, San Andreas Fault, U.S.A.
Current State
Monitoring and scientific evaluations are ongoing
Homepages
Google Earth/Maps
Show in Google Earth: Get Link Zoom in
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| News Highlights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ECORD/ICDP MagellanPlus Call for Proposals Lake Ohrid Drilling Recovered Continuous Record Lake El’gygytgyn Second Overview Paper Scientific Drilling Issue 15 Online 2013 International Van Earthquake Symposium NSF Workshop: Drilling Active Tectonics and Magmatism New SAG Composition for 2013 The Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project Scientific Drilling Issue 14 Online Imaging the Past to Imagine our Future | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daily News from Sites | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lake Ohrid:
In ca 87 m depth at the Cerava hole 2B, we found a conglomerate of gravel, sand and lots of snail and... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Calendar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NSF Workshop on Scientific Drilling and the Evolution of the Earth System NSF Workshop: Drilling Active Tectonics and Magmatism NSF Workshop: Drilling into High-Enthalpy Geothermal Systems | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Contacts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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