Menlo Park, Calif.-About 100,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate will be detonated early next year in nearly 400 test holes to help authorities learn more about the San Andreas fault and the potential consequences of another earthquake. “We’ll be producing our own mini earthquake,” USGS’s Gary Fuis, who is directing what is called the Salton Seismic Imaging Project with experts from CalTech and Virginia Tech, told Green Markets. “We’ve found big gaps in our knowledge – (for example) we didn’t know the shape of the fault and what it looks like underground. We also don’t know how thick the soft clays and sediments are, which are two factors that can enhance the shaking from a big earthquake.” Fuis described the $1 million Salton project as making a snapshot or CAT scan image of what’s underground utilizing ultrasound technology, which is common in medicine and in the oil industry. “We’ll have to look deeper with more powerful explosions detonated below a depth of 60 feet,” the geologist explained. “We’ll shoot them one at a time in the middle of the night when the wind, traffic, and air conditioning noise is at a minimum so that the tiny signals generated by these varied explosions can be seen and recorded.” The test holes will be packed with a varied amount of explosives, ranging from 250 pounds up to 3,000 pounds. Fuis didn’t expect any problem acquiring the ammonium nitrate from contractors since USGS has done business with them in the past, even though the Salton project will require double the amount used in the last big survey in 1999.
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