Skip to main content

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 Gallery (click to Open)

Project Management

Project Details

Project Location

Project Timeline

Drilling

12 July - 14 September 1998

Full Proposal Approved

Preliminary Proposal Submitted