USA - Real-time Earthquake Monitoring at 3km Depth in the San Andreas Fault, California

The main goal of this project initiation proposal is to strengthen the collaboration between NORSAR and the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) project that has the objective to test fundamental theories of earthquake mechanics. SAFOD is motiva ted by the need to answer fundamental questions about the physical 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 de pth of about 3 km, targeting a repeating earthquake source zone. In order to define the target zone more exactly, reliable results about the microearthquakes need to be accessible more or less in real time. Due to NORSARs experience and reputation within microseismic monitoring and the fundamental interest to understand earthquake mechanics, SAFOD and NORSAR have agreed to initiate a project, where one of the aims will be to create a seismic database in form of a bulletin that will be accessible via the I nternet. This common database will then serve as the basis for future cooperation on the more fundamental aspect of earthquake mechanics and geodynamics in one of the most interesting and best studied earthquake zones anywhere. For NORSAR the active parti cipation in a research collaboration within the SAFOD project will represent a unique possibility for involvement and exposure in the forefront of seismology research.