Here are opening paragraphs of a 6/24/02 USGS news release - the complete article is at the link below. - Mary C.
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> An international research team announced Monday it has begun drilling a 1.4-mile-deep hole along the San Andreas Fault near the Central California town of Parkfield - site of one of the longest ongoing earthquake experiments in the world.
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> When drilling is completed this summer, the research team - spearheaded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Stanford University - will make field and laboratory measurements and install a variety of underground instruments that will help scientists better predict the timing and severity of earthquake activity along the 800-mile-long fault.
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> A major objective of the project is to provide geological data for an even more ambitious drilling project called the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) - a parallel borehole designed to cross the fault some 2.4 miles below the surface. If approved by Congress, SAFOD would be the first underground earthquake observatory to penetrate a seismically active fault zone - giving scientists a unique opportunity to continuously monitor a section of the fault where earthquakes actually happen. The current project will serve as a pilot hole for SAFOD by providing critical engineering data needed to drill through the San Andreas Fault itself.
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