A little science news now!

I found the following article this morning and thought it was really interesting and wanted to share it with my readers.

Scientists obtain rock from quake zone

Scientists have sampled rock from an active fault zone 3.7 km below the earth's surface for the first time, providing new clues about earthquakes and how they begin.

The samples are from the San Andreas Fault, which stretches 1,287 km along the coast of California, forming one of the world's most seismically active regions. The fault was responsible for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, the deadliest in US history.

"It's sort of like a Neil Armstrong moment to actually hold the San Andreas Fault in our hands," said Mark Zoback, a professor of earth sciences at Stanford University who is a principal investigator of the project, referring to the first man to step on the moon.

The samples, drilled from a site near Parkfield in central California, weigh nearly a ton and are the first where scientists have been able to preserve the internal structure and mineralogy of rock from deep within an active fault.

Link: The Age: Scientists obtain rock from quake zone