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Dr. Xiaowei Chen
Associate Professor
Department of Geology and Geophysics,
3115 TAMU, College Station, 77843
Office: Halb 351
I am always looking for motivated students with strong math and physics background (programming experience is a plus) to join my research group. If you are interested, please read my research page, and send me an email with your interest! Potential research projects include dense array observations of small earthquakes, environmental seismology, subsurface structure, etc! Here is a story of our DAS experiment in northern Oklahoma in summer 2021: https://onenet.net/university-of-oklahoma-partners-with-onenet-to-measure-seismic-earthquake-activity/
Here is a video documentary about induced earthquake catastrophe (I appear at about 30 min ^_^) https://videos.argonon.com/videos/BriteSparkFilms/21286600201048_BITC_H264_210614/
NEWS!
I have moved to Texas A&M as of August 2022.
2020: Despite of the chaotic happening around the world, some good news happen here.
Postdoc Qimin moved to a new position as a staff seismologist for a consulting company in January 2020.
Student Angie Ortega defended her master thesis in May 2020.
Student Colin Pennington defended his doctoral dissertation on July 14, 2020, and will move on to a new position as USGS Mendenhall postdoc.
I received the Stubbeman-Drace Presidential Professorship from the University of Oklahoma in May 2020.
Our new paper on an improved method for stress drop estimation is published on GJI.
2019: New papers published:
(1) Small earthquakes can be fairly complex! How does the complexity influence aftershock triggering and source spectrum? Check out the publication here: Link
2018: New papers on Oklahoma seismicity published:
(1) How do we distinguish nearfield versus farfield triggering for induced seismicity? Link
(2) What are the stress drops of Oklahoma seismicity? Link
(3) What controls the location of large earthquakes in Oklahoma? Link
2018: New paper on Salton Sea Geothermal field published :
Learn about the difference of seismicity characteristics inside and outside the geothermal field. Link
About Me:
In August 2022, I moved to Texas A&M as an associate professor at the Department of Geology and Geophysics.
In January 2015, I became an assistant professor at the ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics at University of Oklahoma.
From August 2013 to December 2014, I was a postdoc investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
From April to August in 2013, I visited Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo as a visiting research fellow.
In March 2013, I obtained my doctoral degree from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego.
I have been chasing earthquakes since my summer internship at Yunnan Province in 2006, which is one of the most seismic active regions in China. After obtaining my bachelor degree at USTC in China, I moved to California for graduate study. Motivated by the Tohoku earthquake, I moved to Japan for four months after graduation. After returning to the U.S., I relocated to Massachusetts to study subduction earthquakes in the Pacific west coast. At the end of 2014, I relocated to Oklahoma - the new earthquake county in the U.S. - where seismicity rate started to increase in 2009, and now exceeds California.
For my research, I use a variety of seismological analysis tools to understand: how do earthquakes interact with each other? how do earthquakes respond to external stress perturbations, either man-made or natural? what is the rupture process of earthquakes? what controls the maximum size expected of the earthquake on individual faults?