Research Interests
- Subduction zone structure and dynamics. Rupture process of large megathrust, intermediate-depth, and deep-focus earthquakes. Structure of plate interface and subducted slabs at different scales. Mechanics of slab deformation and deep earthquakes.
- Seismology in Southern California. Characterization of SoCal earthquakes. Urban Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) networks. Monitoring subsurface changes due to hydrological/geophysical processes.
- Submarine seismology. Study submarine earthquakes through numerical modeling of water phases and using submarine DAS networks. Microseism generation and ocean waves. Ocean temperature monitoring with earthquake T phases.
- Cryoseismology. Ambient noise imaging and monitoring. Distributed Acoustic Sensing on ice.
Recent News and Media Coverage
- [03/01/2020] Press release on our Science paper Optical polarization–based seismic and water wave sensing on transoceanic cables by Science, BBC, Caltech, The Verge, and many more. You can access the Full Text and Reprint free of charge here.
- [09/30/2020] Zhongwen Zhan featured in Science News' 2020 SN10: Scientists to Watch.
- [09/17/2020] Press release on our Science paper Seismic ocean thermometry by Science, Scientific American, BBC, Caltech, AGU EOS, and many more.
- [06/04/2020] AGU EOS report: Everything’s Coming Up Roses for Pasadena Seismologists
- [05/14/2020] Science reports our DAS research about the 2020 Rose Parade: World’s loudest bands create seismic waves
- [05/08/2020] Marching.com reports our top 5 loudest marching bands of the 2020 Rose Parade: 2020 Rose Parade radiates rhythm underground
- [05/06/2020] Seismological Society of America (SSA) and Caltech feature our SRL paper Fiber Optics Capture Seismic Signatures of the Rose Parade
- [02/19/2020] Scientific American article discusses our DAS experiment on Taku Glacier, Alaska among others: Kilometers of "Dark Cable" Form the Newest Seismic Sensors
- [01/29/2020] Zhichao Shen receives AGU Outstanding Student Presentation Award from the 2019 AGU Fall Meeting. The title of the study is “Small-scale instraslab heterogeneity constrained from inter-source interferometry". Congratulations!
- [12/18/2019] Press release on our Nature Communications paper: Submarine Cables to Offshore Wind Farms Transformed into a Seismic Network and and on over 14 other news outlets.
- [12/03/2019] Press release from the Seismological Society of America about my "Emerging Topics" piece: Seismologists See Future in Fiber Optic Cables as Earthquake Sensors
- [11/19/2019] The Pasadena Array officially online: Caltech and the City of Pasadena Team Up to Build Seismic Sensing Network
- [10/17/2019] Caltech press release on our Science paper about the complicated rupture during the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence: Lessons From Ridgecrest
- [08/27/2019] The Caltech Effect covers our DAS research initiative: Listening with Light
- [07/24/2019] Caltech news on our rapid DAS deployment to the 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake epicentral region: Seismologists Monitor Ridgecrest Aftershocks Using Novel Fiber Optic Network
- [05/24/2019] AGU EOS article covers our work of seismic noise interferometry across a surge glacier: Seismic Clues to Surging Glaciers
- [04/09/2019] Ethan Williams wins the 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!
