Exploring the "machinery" of earthquakes

[TechBear_Seattle]

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4512716.stm

Project opens up quake 'machine'
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter, San Francisco

Scientists are reporting promising results from the project to drill into the famous San Andreas Fault.

The 1,300km-long "crack" that runs right through central California has been the cause of many big earthquakes.

The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (Safod) project has now sent a borehole into the active part of this quake "machine", more than 3km down.

Instrumentation will not be fully fitted until 2007, but already Safod is providing fascinating and useful data.

"We're seeing very localised zones of intensely deformed rocks," said Bill Ellsworth, a co-principal investigator on the programme.

"These form something we call fault gouge, material that has been torn apart by past movement on the fault. These zones are very narrow; some are a few metres wide, some are just a finger's width."

The US Geological Survey researcher was speaking here at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

The article continues at the link given above.

[Duer 157099]

1. Why do I feel like this is similar to

lighting a match to see if you have a gas leak?