San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD)

Support for the current SAFOD management project is provided by the NSF's EarthScope program (EAR-1348121). Prior funding for the SAFOD project was also provided by EarthScope (EAR-0323938), with additional support from the USGS, the ICDP, Stanford University, and NASA.

SAFOD Overview - 9:00

In this overview Judith Chester (Professor of Geology, Texas A&M University) explains the efforts involved in drilling SAFOD's 3-kilometer deep hole into the San Andreas Fault and the importance of the results to the scientific community. Drill core samples from the drilling site were collected for laboratory study and now provide a unique opportunity for scientists from all over the world to explore the conditions deep in the Earth where earthquakes happen, rather than relying on surface observations.

The SAFOD Core in the Lab - 2:56

In this video Chester describes how the SAFOD drill cores are stored at the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's (IODP) Gulf Coast Repository facility on the university campus in College Station, TX. She also explains how samples are taken from the cores in their laboratory to be sent to researchers from around the world.

The Gulf Coast Repository Core Collection - 8:30

Phil Rumford (Supervisor of Curation, Gulf Coast Repository) provides a guided tour of the IODP's Gulf Coast Repository facility at Texas A&M University, in College Station, TX. He explains how the facility stores more than 150,000 meters of rock and sediment cores from the Pacific Ocean and then demonstrates some of the equipment used to study the cores, both aboard ship and in the repository's laboratory. Rumford also points out the SAFOD drill cores, the only continental cores stored at the facility, and highlights their value to researchers.