Drilling of SAFOD Pilot Hole
Nearing Completion
 The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is a comprehensive
proposal to drill and instrument an inclined borehole across the
San Andreas Fault Zone to a depth of 4 km. The central scientific
objective of this project is to study the physical and chemical
processes controlling earthquake generation within an active plate-bounding
fault. Although drilling of the main SAFOD hole awaits Congressional
approval of NSF's EarthScope initiative, a 2.2-km-deep vertical
pilot hole is now being drilled at the SAFOD site. The pilot hole
is a collaborative effort between the International Continental
Drilling Program, NSF and the US Geological Survey. Drilling of
the SAFOD pilot hole began on June 12 and will be completed by July
25. This photograph shows the drill site for the SAFOD pilot hole,
which - as of midnight on July 9 - was at a depth of 1843 m.
For more information about SAFOD and the SAFOD pilot
hole, including daily updates on drilling progress, please visit
this SAFOD
site. More information can be found at EarthScope.org.
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