Articles | Volume 35, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-35-211-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-35-211-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Progress report
| 
16 Oct 2026
Progress report |
| 16 Oct 2026
| 16 Oct 2026
A 500 m deep multipurpose research borehole and monitoring station in Delft, the Netherlands
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Hemmo A. Abels
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Auke Barnhoorn
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Stijn Beernink
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
KWR, Nieuwegein, 3430 PE, the Netherlands
David Bruhn
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Jens van den Berg
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Alexandros Daniilidis
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Anne-Catherine Dieudonné
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Guy Drijkoningen
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Pieter Geris
SMET Group, Dessel, 2480, Belgium
Ties de Jong
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Pauline Kruiver
KNMI, De Bilt, 3731 GA, the Netherlands
Susanne Laumann
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Dirk Munsterman
TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands, Utrecht, 3508 TA, the Netherlands
Erika Neeft
COVRA, Nieuwdorp, 4455 TW, the Netherlands
Pieter Pauw
Deltares, Delft, 2629 HV, the Netherlands
Tobias Schmiedel
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Evert Slob
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Liliana Vargas Meleza
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Denis Voskov
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Kees Wapenaar
Department of Geoscience and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, the Netherlands
Related authors
David Bruhn, Hemmo A. Abels, Auke Barnhoorn, Claire Bossennec, Aoife K. Braiden, Maren Brehme, Romain Chassagne, Alexandros Daniilidis, Mathieu Darnet, Guy Drijkoningen, Patrick Fulton, Virginie Harcouët-Menou, Ernst Huenges, Stefan Jansen, Alexis Koulidis, Susanne Laumann, Haiyan Lei, Joseph Moore, Paula Rulff, Thorben Schöfisch, Evert Slob, Philip J. Vardon, Liliana Vargas-Meleza, and Denis Voskov
Sci. Dril., 35, 83–97, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-35-83-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-35-83-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
A workshop on the the scientific value and use of a 4500 m deep borehole on the campus of TU Delft in the Netherlands was held in June 2024. The borehole will serve as an observation infrastructure for processes in the underground related to human activities, such as exploitation of energy resources like geothermal energy or storage of heat or gas. The location is of great interest for this purpose as there are already two deep geothermal wells and shallow wells for heat storage.
David Bruhn, Hemmo A. Abels, Auke Barnhoorn, Claire Bossennec, Aoife K. Braiden, Maren Brehme, Romain Chassagne, Alexandros Daniilidis, Mathieu Darnet, Guy Drijkoningen, Patrick Fulton, Virginie Harcouët-Menou, Ernst Huenges, Stefan Jansen, Alexis Koulidis, Susanne Laumann, Haiyan Lei, Joseph Moore, Paula Rulff, Thorben Schöfisch, Evert Slob, Philip J. Vardon, Liliana Vargas-Meleza, and Denis Voskov
Sci. Dril., 35, 83–97, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-35-83-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-35-83-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
A workshop on the the scientific value and use of a 4500 m deep borehole on the campus of TU Delft in the Netherlands was held in June 2024. The borehole will serve as an observation infrastructure for processes in the underground related to human activities, such as exploitation of energy resources like geothermal energy or storage of heat or gas. The location is of great interest for this purpose as there are already two deep geothermal wells and shallow wells for heat storage.
Mohammadkarim Karimpour, Evert Slob, and Laura Valentina Socco
Solid Earth, 13, 1569–1583, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-1569-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-13-1569-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Near-surface characterisation is of great importance. Surface wave tomography (SWT) is a powerful tool to model the subsurface. In this work we compare straight-ray and curved-ray SWT at near-surface scale. We apply both approaches to four datasets and compare the results in terms of the quality of the final model and the computational cost. We show that in the case of high data coverage, straight-ray SWT can produce similar results to curved-ray SWT but with less computational cost.
Cited articles
Adriaens, R., Van Baelen, H., Vandenberghe, N., and Wouters, L.: Drilling- and coring-induced artefacts in poorly indurated clays, Geoenergy, 2, 2024–001, https://doi.org/10.1144/geoenergy2024-001, 2024.
Barnhoorn, A., Vardon, P. J., Laumann, S., Drijkoningen, G., and Vargas Meleza, L.: Geothermal Project on TU Delft Campus – DAPGEO-02 Sonic and NMR logs, Version 2, 4TU.ResearchData [data set], https://doi.org/10.4121/e74d650d-31e5-441f-bde5-aaa4338e9d10.v2, 2024.
de Jong, T., Toshniwal, V., Vardon, P. J., and Dieudonné, A. C.: Using X-ray computed tomography to characterise the composition and integrity of clay cores, 3rd International Conference on Energy Geotechnics, https://hal.science/hal-05344070 (last access: 10 August 2026), 2025.
Delft University of Technology: Geothermal Well Wiki: Sample Databases, https://gse-comp.citg.tudelft.nl/dapwell/sample-db.html (last access: 10 August 2026), 2024a.
Delft University of Technology: Geothermal Well Wiki: Sample Management, https://gse-comp.citg.tudelft.nl/dapwell/sample-management.html (last access: 10 August 2026), 2024b.
HADES lab: Why do we need HADES?, HADES lab, https://www.hadeslab.be/en/about/why (last access: 10 July 2026), 2026.
KNMI: Netherlands Seismic and Acoustic Network, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), Other/Seismic Network, https://doi.org/10.21944/e970fd34-23b9-3411-b366-e4f72877d2c5, 1993.
Monforte, L., Arroyo, M., Carbonell, J. M., and Gens, A.: Large-strain analysis of undrained smooth tube sampling, Géotechnique, 72, 61–77, https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeot.19.P.354, 2022.
Munsterman, D. K., ten Veen, J. H., Menkovic, A., Deckers, J., Witmans, N., Verhaegen, J., Kerstholt-Boegehold, S. J., van de Ven, T., and Busschers, F. S.: An updated and revised stratigraphic framework for the Miocene and earliest Pliocene strata of the Roer Valley Graben and adjacent blocks, Neth. J. Geosci., 98, https://doi.org/10.1017/njg.2019.10, 2019.
Neeft, E., Vuorio, M., Bartol, J., Verhoef, E., McCombie, C., and Chapman, N.: COPERA clay 2024: a conditional safety case and feasibility study, COVRA https://www.covra.nl/app/uploads/2025/03/COPERA-CLAY-2024_web.pdf (last access: 10 August 2026), 2024.
Tanaka, A., Nakano, T., and Ikehara, K.: X-ray computerized tomography analysis and density estimation using a sediment core from the Challenger Mound area in the Porcupine Seabight, off Western Ireland, Earth, Planet. Space, 63, 103–110, https://doi.org/10.5047/eps.2010.12.006, 2011.
Vardon, P. J., Bruhn, D. F., Steiginga, A., Cox, B., Abels, H., Barnhoorn, A., Drijkoningen, G., Slob, E., and Wapenaar, K.: A Geothermal Well Doublet for Research and Heat Supply of the TU Delft Campus, World Geothermal Congress, https://worldgeothermal.org/pdf/IGAstandard/WGC/2020/28025.pdf (last access: 10 August 2026), 2020.
Vardon, P. J., Laumann, S. J., Schmiedel, T., Vargas Meleza, L., Barnhoorn, A., Abels, H. A., Drijkoningen, G. G., Dieudonné, A. C., Beernink, S. T. W., and van den Berg, J. J.: Drilling report: Delftse Hout multipurpose research borehole – DAPGEO-02, Delft University of Technology [data set], https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:fde70c00-cf65-4174-9cd3-89585a5e61bd, 2022.
Vardon, P. J., Abels, H. A., Barnhoorn, A., Beernink, S., Dieudonne, A.-C., Drijkoningen, G., Laumann, S., and Vargas Meleza, L.: Geothermal Project on TU Delft Campus – DAPGEO-02 Initial Borehole Dataset (Version 2), 4TU.ResearchData [data set], https://doi.org/10.4121/20299644.V2, 2023a.
Vardon, P. J., Dieudonne, A.-C., Abels, H. A., Beernink, S., Meijvogel-de Koning, E., Barnhoorn, A., Laumann, S., and Vargas Meleza, L.: Geothermal Project on TU Delft Campus – DAPGEO-02 Core CT-Scan Data (Version 2), 4TU.ResearchData [data set], https://doi.org/10.4121/21528819.V2, 2023b.
Vardon, P. J., Laumann, S., Abels, H. A., Barnhoorn, A., Bloemendal, M., Daniilidis, A., Drijkoningen, G., Koulidis, A., Vargas Meleza, L., Rulff, P., Sahin, M., and Voskov, D.: Geothermal Project on TU Delft Campus Collection, Version 9, 4TU.ResearchData [data set], collection, https://doi.org/10.4121/85b3725b-80fa-4b0b-9db2-475bfd8f0265.v9, 2026.
Short summary
As part of a geothermal project in Delft, the Netherlands, a 500 m deep multifunctional research borehole and monitoring station (called DAPGEO-02) was drilled in spring 2022. Cores and other solid samples were taken using a comprehensive logging programme using tools lowered into the borehole, and sensitive instruments were installed to measure any minor seismicity. The data from this borehole are publicly available, and physical sample requests can be made to promote scientific discovery.
As part of a geothermal project in Delft, the Netherlands, a 500 m deep multifunctional research...
