The State : Research Well Is Cut Short

Reduced funding will force at least a temporary halt next week on what was to have been a 16,000-foot-deep research well in Cajon Pass near the San Andreas Fault. Scientists had hoped to learn about the dynamics of the fault from the well, which reveals such things as stresses in the rock at different levels, but drilling will end at about 12,000 feet, and the results of the research may be “inconclusive,” said chief scientist Mark Zoback, a geophysicist with Stanford University. The project is funded primarily by the National Science Foundation, which has been hit by budget cutbacks. More than 25 scientists are involved in the drilling project, which is the deepest well ever drilled for scientific research in this country. Zoback said he hopes to resume drilling at some point.