Long Valley Exploratory Well
Project Acronym: LVEW | State: Completed | Expedition ID: 5024
A scientific drilling effort has been proposed to deepen an existing 2-km deep hole to a target depth of between 3.5 and 4.0 km. The borehole is located near the center of the resurgent dome of Long Valley Caldera in east-central California. Deepening the well has been accomplished by continuous H-size coring (2.5" diameter core) to the target depth. Long Valley Caldera has shown sustained unrest since 1980 characterized by recurring earthquake swarms, inflation (dome-shaped uplift) of the resurgent dome, and increased levels of fumarolic activity accompanied by high concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas in the soils around Mammoth Mountain on the southwest margin of the caldera.
Keywords: North America, USA, California, Long Valley, Caldera, Thermal Regimes, Volcanic Systems,
Cores are stored at U.S. Geological Survey, Core Research Center, Denver, USA.
Project News
Drilling Finished!
1998-09-14
Project Management
Contact Person
- David Hill – U.S. Geological Survey at Menlo Park
Lead PIs
- John Sass – U.S. Geological Survey at Flagstaff
- John Finger – Sandia National Laboratories
CoPIs
- Christoph Clauser – RWTH Aachen University
- Christopher Farrar – U.S. Geological Survey at Sacramento
- Daniel Yang – Borealis Geothermal
- John Eichelberger – University of Alaska at Fairbanks
- John Valley – University of Wisconsin at Madison
- Mark Zoback – Stanford University
- Michael Sorey – U.S. Geological Survey at Menlo Park
- Paul Kasameyer – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Roy Bailey – U.S. Geological Survey at Sacramento
- Stephen Hickman – U.S. Geological Survey at Menlo Park
- Vicki McConnell – Geological Society of America
- William Ellsworth – Stanford University
Project Details
Project Description
- Title:
- Long Valley Exploratory Well (LVEW)
- Proposed in:
- 1997
- Current State:
- Completed
- Proposal abstract:
- n.a.
- Geologic age:
- Quaternary
- Number of drillsites (drillholes):
- 1(1)
- Drilled length:
- 808.63 m
- Cored length:
- 808.63 m
- Core recovered, length:
- 805.83 m
- Core recovered length / Cored length:
- 99.7%
- Core recovered / Drilled length:
- 99.7%
- Expedition #
- 5024
- Location
- North America, U.S.A., California, Sierra Nevada, Long Valley Caldera, U.S.A.
- Coordinates
- 38.0000, -119.0000
- Status
- Completed
Project Location
Project Timeline
Drilling
12 July - 14 September 1998