Community Facility Support: Management and Operation of a Continental Scientific Drilling and Coring Facility

该地球科学计划社区设施奖支持大陆科学钻探设施（CSDF）的运营和管理。 几种类型的地球科学研究需要分析材料，如土壤，岩石，水和地表以下的微生物。钻孔还允许在地表下安装仪器，以提高我们对地震过程，或地表下水的运动，或形成不同矿物质并将岩石转化为土壤的过程，或利用地热能的最佳方法的理解。随着时间的推移，沉积物层沉积在湖泊中，每个沉积物层都包含有关湖泊沉积时周围条件的信息。从湖床收集岩芯样本可以分析沉积层，以了解在湖泊的整个生命周期中，湖泊附近地区的气候，水，生态系统，火山和地球板块运动如何变化。要深入地表以下找到这些物质，需要钻探和岩心取样。这些程序复杂，昂贵，风险高，工具，仪器和数据系统都是专门的。CSDF每年支持数百个研究项目，包括湖泊中的短岩心到结晶岩中的深钻。 CSDF的活动包括：项目开发;后勤和承包;实地业务管理;外联、多样性和教育;租赁和销售专门设备和用品;岩心扫描、分离/切片、二次取样和描述;二次取样制备和分析;维护样本、数据、出版物和参考资料收集管理库;网络基础设施开发;科学钻探和取芯对地球科学的发展至关重要。它们是获取未暴露在地表的新鲜、未风化材料的主要手段。来自湖泊和其他沉积盆地的岩芯样本提供了环境和生态系统历史档案，使人们能够重建地球生命系统，了解系统变化和生态系统的反应和恢复力。岩心样品和钻孔提供了一种通过取样、现场测量和长期监测来了解水文、地质和地球化学过程的手段。地下微生物群落可以取样和分析，以了解它们在岩石风化、断层力学和其他地质和地球化学过程中的作用。科学动机多种多样，包括水文学和流体输送、地球化学、地质微生物学、地球生命系统的古记录、火山学和岩浆活动、构造学、地热、断层力学和地震活动、岩石风化和火流星撞击。使这门科学成为可能的取芯和钻井作业通常是复杂的、高技术性的、昂贵的，并且带来很大的风险，并且所需的设备、工具、仪器和数据管理系统是专门的。虽然项目之间的要求各不相同，但许多共同点允许通过利用共享的专业知识和资源实现规模经济，即使项目的深度或成本相差10万或更多。大陆科学钻探（CSD）设施根据这些社区的优先事项为他们提供资源。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Division of Earth Sciences Program community facility award supports operations and management of the Continental Scientific Drilling Facility (CSDF). Several types of Earth science research require analyzing materials such as soil, rock, water, and microbes below the ground surface. Drilled boreholes also allow installation of instruments below the surface that improve our understanding of earthquake processes, or the movement of water below the surface, or processes that form different minerals and change rock into soil, or the best ways to harness geothermal energy. Over time, sediment layers are deposited in lakes, and each of the sediment layers contains information about the conditions around the lake at the time it was deposited. Collecting core samples from lakebeds allows analysis of the layers of sediment to understand how climate, water, ecosystems, volcanoes, and Earth’s plate motions have changed in the region near the lake, throughout the entire lifespan of the lake. Reaching these materials deep below the surface requires drilling and core sampling. These procedures are complex, expensive, and can be high risk, and the tools, instruments, and data systems are specialized. CSDF supports hundreds of research projects per year that involve short coring in lakes to deep drilling in crystalline rock. Activities of the CSDF include: project development; logistics and contracting; field operations management; outreach, diversity, and education; rental and sales of specialized equipment and supplies; core scanning, splitting/slabbing, subsampling, and description; subsample preparation and analysis; maintenance of repositories for stewardship of samples, data, publications, and reference collections; cyberinfrastructure development; physical infrastructure development; and community coordination.Scientific drilling and coring are essential for the advancement of the Earth Sciences. They are the primary means to access fresh, unweathered materials that are not exposed at the surface. Core samples from lakes and other sedimentary basins provide archives of environmental and ecosystem history, allowing reconstruction of the Earth-life system through time to understand system changes and ecosystem response and resilience. Core samples and boreholes provide a means to understand hydrologic, geologic, and geochemical processes operating at depth, through sampling, in-situ measurements, and long-term monitoring. Subsurface microbiological communities may be sampled and analyzed to understand their role in rock weathering, fault mechanics, and other geologic and geochemical processes. Scientific motivations are diverse, including hydrology and fluid transport, geochemistry, geomicrobiology, paleorecords of the Earth-Life system, volcanology and magmatism, tectonics, geothermal, fault mechanics and seismicity, rock weathering, and bolide impacts. Coring and drilling operations that enable this science are often complex, highly technical, expensive, and entail substantial risk, and the equipment, tooling, instrumentation, and data management systems required are specialized. Although requirements vary between projects, the many commonalities allow economies of scale by leveraging shared expertise and resources, even as projects range in depth or cost by a factor of 100,000 or more. The Continental Scientific Drilling (CSD) Facility delivers resources for all of these communities in accordance with their priorities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.