Workshop White Papers Sci. Dril., 18, 19–33, 2014 www.sci-dril.net/18/19/2014/ doi:10.5194/sd-18-19-2014 © Author(s) 2014. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Drilling to investigate processes in active tectonics and magmatism J. Shervais1, J. Evans1, V. Toy2, J. Kirkpatrick3, A. Clarke4, and J. Eichelberger5 1Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA 2University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand 3Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524, USA 4Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA 5University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA Correspondence to: J. Shervais (
[email protected]) Received: 7 January 2014 – Revised: 5 May 2014 – Accepted: 19 May 2014 – Published: 22 December 2014 Abstract. Coordinated drilling efforts are an important method to investigate active tectonics and magmatic processes related to faults and volcanoes. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) recently sponsored a series of workshops to define the nature of future continental drilling efforts. As part of this series, we convened a workshop to explore how continental scientific drilling can be used to better understand active tectonic and magmatic processes. The workshop, held in Park City, Utah, in May 2013, was attended by 41 investigators from seven countries. Participants were asked to define compelling scientific justifications for examining problems that can be addressed by coordinated programs of continental scientific drilling and related site investigations. They were also asked to evaluate a wide range of proposed drilling projects, based on white papers submitted prior to the workshop. Participants working on faults and fault zone processes highlighted two overarching topics with exciting po- tential for future scientific drilling research: (1) the seismic cycle and (2) the mechanics and architecture of fault zones.