152 Integrating 20 Years of Scientific Drilling in the East African-Syrian Rift: A Session In Honor of Andrew Cohen (Posters)

Continental drilling extending from the East African Rift into western Asia has yielded transformative discoveries, altering our understanding of paleoenvironments, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, and paleoanthropology. This session, in honor of Andrew Cohen, will celebrate these successes and define new directions.

Monday, 20 October 2025
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, Hall 1

Revisiting the SAFOD Core: Re-Curation and Digital Preservation of Seismicity at Depth Along a Plate Boundary Fault

Paper number: 152-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

The San Andreas Fault, California’s notorious 800 mile-long fault system that lines its western coast, has hosted several devastating earthquakes while stretching beneath the region’s most populous cities. In an effort to better understand the mechanisms of slip and rupture in its central creeping section, the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) project was established in 1998 as a collaborative effort between the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), NSF, and USGS. SAFOD commenced with the drilling of a 2.2 km deep pilot hole in 2002, followed by three phases of drilling between 2004 and 2007 penetrating an additional 3.2 km into the fault. It succeeded as the first borehole to intercept regions of seismicity at depth along a plate-boundary fault, with near complete recovery of material from two active fault strands. Since the start of the project, over 1,500 samples have been distributed with results published in over 100 peer-reviewed journals.

 

All physical and digital SAFOD materials are currently maintained by the Gulf Coast Repository at Texas A&M University. The collection includes ~65 meters of core, ~800 returned samples, thin sections and core cuttings. In past years, updated digital records were limited, making it challenging for researchers to access SAFOD materials. Here, we present our recent efforts to update information and re-establish a centralized hub for exploring the core collection, requesting samples, and introducing new investigators to the SAFOD project. We have re-curated and collected updated photos of the physical cores, organized digital records, updated sample request procedures and sampling protocols, and compiled associated publications. All core sections and previously collected samples are registered with SESAR, assigning them each an IGSN, achieving FAIR principles of data management for the SAFOD project.  Updated information on the SAFOD core collection is accessible via the Gulf Coast Repository’s website (gcr.tamu.edu), to support the next phase of studies on this critical seismic site.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-412264

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