Earthscope

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The EarthScope project is an undertaking funded by the National Science Foundation in partnership with the USGS and NASA to characterize the geology of North America. EarthScope is composed of three projects: USARRAY, the Plate Boundary Observatory PBO and the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth SAFOD.

The instrumentation of USARRAY consists of a series of portable and permanent seismometers that will be installed over the next 10 years. The goal of USARRAY is primarily to gain a better understanding of the structure of the lithosphere underneath North America.

The Plate Boundary Observatory PBO consists of a series of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and borehole strainmeters that will be installed to help understand the boundary between the North American and Pacific plates.

The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth SAFOD consists of drilling a hole across the active San Andreas Fault at a depth of approximately 3 km. Samples collected during drilling, as well as data from instruments installed in the hole, will help to better understand the process that control the behavior of the San Andreas Fault.