STANFORD, Calif., Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Researchers say they plan to drill deep inside America's best-known earthquake zone -- California's San Andreas Fault -- to help predict future earthquakes.
A team from Stanford University and the U.S. Geological Survey in May 2004 will begin drilling a 2.4-mile-deep hole in the fault and installing the first continuous monitoring probe from inside an active earthquake zone.
"Our current knowledge of fault zone processes is so poor that not only are we unable to make reliable short-term earthquake predictions, we dont know whether such predictions are even possible," Mark Zoback, one of the project's leaders, said Monday.
"By making continuous observations directly within the San Andreas Fault zone at depths where earthquakes start, we will be able to test and extend current theories about phenomena that might precede an impending earthquake."
The drilling will take place on a private ranch near Parkfield, Calif., a tiny rural town located halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The ranch straddles the fault, an 800-mile-long rift that runs from the Mexican border to the northern part of the state.
