Research
Seismology in Southern California
Southern California is home to the Caltech Seismological Laboratory and also a natural earthquake laboratory.
With abundant seismicity and a nearly century-old high-quality seismic network, SoCal is ideal for studying earthquake physics,
imaging subsurface geology, and testing new seismic sensing technologies. Our research in SoCal focus on
chacterization of intermediate to large earthquakes (moment tensors and kinematic rupture models), shallow subsurface imaging and monitoring with Distributed Acoustic Sensing.
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Subduction zone and deep earthquakes
Most of the global seismicity, in particular the big earthquakes, are concentrated in subduction zones, where one plate plunges under another.
Subduction zones also provide the driving forces of plate tectonics. We are interested in developing novel methods to better
understand the multi-scale seismic structure of subbducted slabs, rupture processes of large interplate and intraslab earthquakes,
and the relationship between structure and source.
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Submarine seismology
While seismic coverage on land has improved tremendously over the last decades, seismic instrumentation in the ocean is still fundamentally limited.
This hinders our understanding of submarine earthquakes (e.g., Mid-Ocean Ridge and Transform Faults, tsunamigenic earthquakes), fine-scale deep Earth structures,
and wave propagations in the ocean (e.g., T waves). Our research in this domain strives to bring new resolution to submarine earthquakes and oceanographic processes,
and new technologies (e.g., Distributed Acoustic Sensing) to improve future coverage in the ocean.
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Cryosphere seismology
There has been a surge of interest in glacier seismology since the early 2000s, driven by the needs to understand glacier dynamics
and its contribution to global sea level rise. Due to the remoteness and harsh environment in many glaciology research regions,
deploying and maintaining continuous seismic networks is expensive. We are interested in applying ambient noise imaging and monitoring to conventional and
Distributed Acoustic Sensing arrays on ice to reveal fine-scale glacier structures and their temporal changes due to internal instability or external perturbations.
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Volcano seismology
Volcanoes are spectacular but also difficult to study. Seismology still provides the best way to cover the dynamic processes in high temporal resolution with depth
sensitivity. We are interested in combing multiple geophysical observations in understanding the volcano plumbing system and dynamics.
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