This volume provides a review and synthesizes the accomplishments of the past decade of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program. More importantly, it defines opportunities for scientific advancement through future drilling projects addressing a broad range of disciplines in the Earth Sciences. In addition there is a review of all past projects that were supported by the ICDP, as well as of technical aspects associated with continental drilling.

The Workshop on Continental Drilling for Scientific Purposes addressed the questions of how to maximize the scientific value of current and planned continental drilling efforts of Federal agencies and industry and how to supplement these efforts with holes drilled solely for scientific purposes. The subjects treated by Workshop panels included: basement structures and deep continental basins - broad and specific questions related to understanding the earth's continental crust; thermal regimes - basic understanding of geothermal systems; mineral resources - basic understanding of ore-forming processes; earthquakes - basic understanding of earthquakes and faulting mechanisms; drilling technology - development of drilling and logging equipment capable of operating at high temperatures (up to 500 C).

This book comprehensively introduces the drilling theory and practice behind CCSD-1 well drilling, the first stage of a key national scientific engineering project of China. In addition to access to variety of data and information accumulated decade during the project’s decade-long operation, readers also gain insight into state-of-the-art techniques and most recent achievements in China’s scientific drilling industry. Specifically, this work introduces the drilling engineering design, well site construction, and equipment and construction situation. It also provides a minute description on the new techniques that were developed for tackling the technical difficulties, expounds in detail the core drilling techniques for hard rock deep well, and treats diamond core drill bits, reaming drilling techniques in hard crystalline rocks, well-deviation control techniques for strong dipping strata, and much more. In summary, this book offers a valuable resource for engineers and technicians who engage in scientific drilling and a variety of resource drilling engineering; teachers and students who are interested in this field will also gain plentiful information. Prof. Da Wang, the former deputy director of China Geological Survey, was the director of the Engineering Centre, chief engineer and drill-site general director of China Continental Scientific Drilling Project.