Campus Directory

Division Physical & Biological Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Earth & Planetary Sciences Department

Title Research Geophysicist

Affiliation Staff

Staff Type Researcher

Web Site

Primary Office Location Earth & Marine Sciences
C349

Mail Stop Earth and Planetary Sciences

Biography, Education and Training

B.S., Northwestern University, China
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Summary of Expertise

Theoretical Seismology and Geophysical Imaging

Research Interests

The classic earth model is undergoing a revolutionary change: from a static, layered structure to a kinematic/dynamic, laterally heterogeneous model. The earth has been revealed to have hierachical, multi-scaled heterogeneities everywhere, keeping change all the time. More heterogenous the place is, the more interesting processes (subduction, collision, accretion) can be found around that place. Seismology played and is still playing an important role in the movement.

The introduction of broad-band and multi-component seismometers, installation of various seismic networks and arrays (from global, regional and local networks, to small aperture arrays), digital recording and networking, etc. have tremendously increased the data amount and quality available to the seismological community. Combined with even faster progress of super-computing and parallel precessing, the opportunity of discoveries and contributions in front of seismologists are ever greater than before. Ru-Shan Wu's interest is to advance wave propagation and scattering theory and high-resolution geophysical imaging methods (diffraction and scattering tomography), and taking full advantage of the new development in data acquisition and computing capacity, to join the adventure of penetrating the Earth and discovering new features.

Wu and his colleagues have studied the small-scale heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle and their statistical characteristics (modeled as random media) directly (from well-logging data) and indirectly (from seismic wave scattering). He has developed new theories and methods on elastic wave propagation and scattering in complex earth media, on separation scattering effect from intrinsic attenuation, on whole seismogram synthetics, and on diffraction and scattering tomography. He has obtained the power spectra, fractal dimensions and other statistical parameters of lithospheric heterogeneities in several regions of the world and is studying the relation of fractals and chaos to tectonic/geodynamic processes. Influences of diffraction/scattering and random scattering by small-scale heterogeneities to tomography of large-scale structures are also in Wu's research topics.