![Photo of Zhe with arms crossed in a field.](https://ig.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/zhe_jia-1024x1024.jpg)
Research Assistant Professor
I am interested in using multi-geophysical data and modeling to understand earthquakes’ mechanisms and their related hazards. My team studies earthquakes from shallow, intermediate-, to deep depths, from continental fault systems to subduction zones, from tectonic to induced seismic events. Through careful analyses on a number of global large events, I discovered that many earthquakes happen as a series of ruptures spanning multiple faults in distinct episodes, rather than (as was previously assumed) a smooth unzipping of a planar fault.
My current research keeps untangling these enigmatic earthquake behaviors, and understanding their relationship with potentially controlling factors, including fault geometry, stress interactions, structural heterogeneities, regional tectonics, and fluids. I use an integrated research framework that covers 1) inversions of earthquake source processes using seismic and geodetic data, 2) numerical/dynamic models that interpret earthquake behaviors, and 3) quantitative assessment of seismic hazards using state-of-the-art earthquake source and Earth’s structural models. I also adopt new technologies including machine learning and distributed acoustic sensing.
I am actively looking for motivated students, postdocs, and visiting scholars, and there are co-advising opportunities! Please feel free to contact me to discuss research and applications.
Interests
Earthquake source complexities and their controlling factors, seismic and tsunami hazards, subduction process, injection-induced seismicity, dense seismic/geodetic arrays.
Academics
Ph.D., Geophysics, California Institute of Technology, 2022
M.Sc., Geophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2019
B.Sc., Geophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2016