Descr: We have received notification that after a long, drawn out, and uncertain reviewing process, we will be awarded a second California Energy Commission grant to continue our geothermal research in Long Valley caldera, California. Our original Mammoth 1997 study, which used 40 PASSCAL RefTeks and sensors on loan from the PASSCAL Instrument Center, recorded over 10,000 earthquakes in the Casa Diablo area. The 97 project resulted in 3 major published papers on structure and seismology of the caldera, and 2 smaller, broadly published, Geothermal Resouces Council science reports. The newly funded project, Mammoth 2003, focuses on the Dry Creek Basin area, where a new potential geothermal system exists. The purpose of the Mammoth 2003 experiment is to test the relationshiip between microearthquakes and geothermal fluids. The test will be conducted by locating a seismicly active zone in Dry Creek Basin using portable seismographs such as the RefTeks, and then drilling a borehole to test for the fluids. This goal is not only part of the CEC science mission to understand geothermal systems, but also is included in the NSF and ICDP programs such as EarhScope (San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth) and Mammoth Phase IV (Downhole Geophysical Observatory). There are some special circumstances associated with this project, as we are also proposing to test a new data logger system based on an OYO-GERI recorder and OYO-GEOSPACE GS-1 sensor package and compare it to the RefTeks. The new recording system is being supported under a UNEP grant to Duke and KenGen. We have also previously done projects with KenGen, with Silas Simiyu and Stephen Onacha, in Kenya. (Marcos will remember this well.) We now have a large grant from the UNEP/World Bank for work in Kenya, for which we are being asked to purchase either an existing recorder system or a design and build a new one. We have a new design we would to test. We are discussing this design with industry, and are attempting to see how it might push things like USARRY tests forward. UNEP and KenGen have agreed to allow the new system to tested in Mammoth as part of the CEC grant. PASSCAL can use this opportunity to view a new recording system that might be appropritate for the the USARRAY effort.
