Workshop proposal for development of a fracture processes facility at DUSEL Homestake

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The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at Homestake presents an opportunity to conduct a unique experimental program by providing access to locations with vertical stresses as large as 60 MPa (down to 2400m depth), more than sufficient to create faults. It also allows facilities at different depths, permitting experiments to be conducted under different stress levels. These proposed experiments require a facility providing access to large rock volumes in the deep subsurface in a controlled setting, and one where interdisciplinary collaborations are encouraged; all the conditions are met at DUSEL Homestake.This award will bring together key members of the scientific community in a series of two planning workshops with the ultimate goal to develop a proposal that will be included in the NSF DUSEL Major Research Equipment and Facility Construction (MREFC) project in 2011.Workshop 1 - The first of the proposed workshops will bring together 6 investigators in Lead, SD with the objectives of planning the project, interfacing with other research groups and the facility, and identifying suitable locations for the experiment. This planning exercise will take place 30 Sept. to 2 Oct. 2009.Workshop 2 - A second workshop is planned for Berkeley, CA in March 2010 with the purpose of reviewing designs of experiments that will be described in the proposal. This workshop will bring together 15-20 scientists working on various aspects of the experiments with engineers working on instrumentation and equipment to address various aspects of implementation. In addition, experts from appropriate fields who are not currently involved with the project will be invited to the workshop to review progress and provide suggestions. The objective of the design workshop is to finalize scientific objectives and approach of the S5 DUSEL proposal.