The Alpine fault is the most dangerous fault in New Zealand—and one of the most dangerous in the world. It ruptures with an 8.0-magnitude earthquake roughly once every 300 years, and with the last one in 1717, it’s ripe for another. So what are we going to do about it? Why, drill a hole nearly a mile deep into it.
For all that we know about earthquakes in 2014, we’re still terribly lousy at predicting them. Scientists have no idea what happens inside an active fault the months, days, and minutes leading up to a quake. The Deep Fault Drilling Project in New Zealand will the first time scientists have ever drilled into an active fault overdue for a big earthquake.
via Gizmodo
