About

Lianxing Wen is a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University. He holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, obtained in 1998, and has been a faculty member at Stony Brook since 2000. Professor Wen is a theoretical and observational seismologist and geodynamicist whose main research focuses on understanding the structure, dynamics, composition, and evolution of the Earth and other planets. He utilizes seismic waves to probe the Earth's internal structure and its changes over time, combining seismic, geodetic, and mineral physics data to constrain the composition of the Earth's and Martian mantles. His work involves developing geodynamical models to explain how Earth's internal processes influence phenomena such as continental drift, surface uplift, large igneous provinces, geochemistry, intra-plate deformation, and volcanism. Additionally, he has a strong interest in the physical mechanisms behind Earth's changing stress and strain, as well as the detection, relocation, and physical mechanisms of various unconventional seismic sources, including nuclear tests, induced earthquakes, hurricanes, and deep earthquakes. Throughout his research career, Professor Wen has developed numerous techniques for simulating viscous flow and seismic wave propagation, detecting and locating small and unconventional seismic sources, and classifying different types of seismic events. He leads two national-level initiatives in seismology in China, including the China Seismological Reference Model (CSRM) project and a report on earthquake hazard mitigation in China.

Research topics

• Geology
• Paleontology
• Seismology
• Geophysics
• Geomorphology
• Geometry

Selected publications

• Spectrogram and Volcano Detection Discriminant Comparisons Between Explosive Submarine Volcanic Eruptions and Nearby Earthquakes

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-17

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Figures Z1–Z12 present comparisons of spectrogram characteristics and volcano detection discriminants between verified explosive submarine volcanic eruptions and nearby earthquakes by Zhu and Wen. The figures cover 13 submarine volcanic regions in the Western Pacific Ocean, including Kaitoku Seamount, Kita-Ioto, Daikoku, Ahyi, Agrigan, South Sarigan, NW Rota-1, West Mata, Ioto, the Mariana Back-Arc Segment at 18.2°N, 17.0°N, and 15.5°N, and the Kyushu–Palau Ridge at 16.3°N. These figures provide supporting evidence for distinguishing explosive submarine volcanic eruptions from nearby earthquakes using spectral and waveform-based discriminants. The original hydroacoustic data used in this study are available by the CTBTO International Data Centre, Vienna, through the virtual Data Exploitation Centre (vDEC) (https://www.ctbto.org/specials/vdec/). Earthquake catalogue data are available from the International Seismological Centre (ISC) (https://www.isc.ac.uk).

  PublisherDOI

• Spectrogram and Volcano Detection Discriminant Comparisons Between Explosive Submarine Volcanic Eruptions and Nearby Earthquakes

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-17

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Figures Z1–Z12 present comparisons of spectrogram characteristics and volcano detection discriminants between verified explosive submarine volcanic eruptions and nearby earthquakes by Zhu and Wen. The figures cover 13 submarine volcanic regions in the Western Pacific Ocean, including Kaitoku Seamount, Kita-Ioto, Daikoku, Ahyi, Agrigan, South Sarigan, NW Rota-1, West Mata, Ioto, the Mariana Back-Arc Segment at 18.2°N, 17.0°N, and 15.5°N, and the Kyushu–Palau Ridge at 16.3°N. These figures provide supporting evidence for distinguishing explosive submarine volcanic eruptions from nearby earthquakes using spectral and waveform-based discriminants. The original hydroacoustic data used in this study are available by the CTBTO International Data Centre, Vienna, through the virtual Data Exploitation Centre (vDEC) (https://www.ctbto.org/specials/vdec/). Earthquake catalogue data are available from the International Seismological Centre (ISC) (https://www.isc.ac.uk).

  PublisherDOI

• Spectrogram and Volcano Detection Discriminant Comparisons Between Explosive Submarine Volcanic Eruptions and Nearby Earthquakes (Figs. Z1–Z12)

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-09

  otherOpen accessSenior author

  Figures Z1–Z12 present comparisons of spectrogram characteristics and volcano detection discriminants between verified explosive submarine volcanic eruptions and nearby earthquakes by Zhu and Wen. The figures cover 13 submarine volcanic regions in the Western Pacific Ocean, including Kaitoku Seamount, Kita-Ioto, Daikoku, Ahyi, Agrigan, South Sarigan, NW Rota-1, West Mata, Ioto, the Mariana Back-Arc Segment at 18.2°N, 17.0°N, and 15.5°N, and the Kyushu–Palau Ridge at 16.3°N. These figures provide supporting evidence for distinguishing explosive submarine volcanic eruptions from nearby tectonic earthquakes using spectral and waveform-based discriminants. The original hydroacoustic data used in this study are available by the CTBTO International Data Centre, Vienna, through the virtual Data Exploitation Centre (vDEC) (https://www.ctbto.org/specials/vdec/). Earthquake catalogue data are available from the International Seismological Centre (ISC) (https://www.isc.ac.uk).

  PublisherDOI

• Widespread submarine volcanic eruptions and tectonics revealed in the northwest Pacific Ocean

  Research Square · 2025-10-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Decadal change of seismic structure in the Earth’s lowermost mantle

  Nature Communications · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Studying temporal changes of seismic property could provide a direct mean to monitor dynamic processes in the Earth’s lowermost mantle, yet no related seismic observations were discovered. Here, we report temporal changes of seismic data between a pair of nearly co-located earthquakes occurring on 2000/07/07 and 2009/12/17 and infer two types of decadal-scale structural changes in the lowermost mantle: (1) a 10s km-scale shrinkage or movement of an ultra-low velocity zone near the core-mantle boundary, and (2) opposing shear wave anisotropy changes in the top and bottom portions of the lowermost ~300 km mantle. These findings suggest that ultra-low velocity zones are deformed as partially molten materials or moved by vigorous localized material flows and the region of the lowermost mantle possesses a separate layer circulation. This report demonstrates the capability of seismic monitoring of deep mantle dynamics and calls for new geodynamical models to account for these previously unrecognized features. The paper reports decadal changes of ultra-low-velocity zone and seismic anisotropy in the Earth’s lowermost mantle, revealing an unexpectedly vigorous lowermost mantle convection and the capability of seismic monitoring of deep mantle dynamics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Three stages of plateau evolution manifested in present-day Tibetan Plateau

  Nature Communications · 2025-10-30

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Notwithstanding the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau being a fundamental topic in continental dynamics, general mechanisms of Plateau uplift remain elusive and past Plateau evolution models lack clarity of the actual geodynamical process. Here, with detailed mappings of intra-crustal low-velocity zones and crust-mantle discontinuity in the region using the seismic data consolidated by the China Seismological Reference Model project, we show that the present-day Tibetan Plateau manifests three stages of mid-crustal flow driven evolution that can be clearly identified in three distinct regions of the Plateau: a pre-response stage with a young mid-crustal partially molten zone but little response of surface topography and crust-mantle discontinuity, the first stage with a mature mid-crustal partially molten zone by deepening crust-mantle discontinuity without large-scale surface uplift, and the last stage by large-scale surface uplifting. Our results provide direct observation and a unique reference of geodynamical responses at different evolution stages of the continent-continent collision zones. This study identifies regions and features of three stages of plateau evolution in the present-day Tibetan Plateau, based on structural features of intra-crustal low-velocity zones, depth of the crust-mantle boundary and surface topography.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hydroacoustic study of fin whales around the Southern Wake Island: Type, vocal behavior, and temporal evolution from 2010 to 2022

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2024-05-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The progress of fin whale study is hindered by the debate about whether the two typical type-A and type-B calls (characterized by central source frequencies of 17-20 Hz and 20-30 Hz, respectively) originate from a single fin whale or two individual fin whales. Here, hydroacoustic data is employed to study the type, vocal behavior, and temporal evolution of fin whale calls around the Southern Wake Island from 2010 to 2022. It is identified that (1) type-A and type-B calls come from two individuals based on the large source separation of the two calls through high-precision determination of source location; (2) type-A fin whales exhibit vocal influence on type-B fin whales, where type-B fin whales become paired with type-A calls and vocalize regularly when type-A fin whales appear, and type-A fin whales always lead the call sequences; and (3) some type-A fin whales stop calling when another type-A fin whale approaches at a distance of about 1.6 km. During 2010-2022, type-A calls occur every year, whereas type-B calls are prevalent only after November 2018. A culture transmission is proposed from type-A fin whales to type-B fin whales and/or a population increase of type-B fin whales in the region after November 2018.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Non‐Double‐Couple Components of Seismic Source: Method and Application to the 2014–2015 Bárðarbunga Volcanic Event Sequence, Iceland

  Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth · 2024-04-01 · 2 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Genuine non‐double‐couple (non‐DC) components of a seismic source, defined here as the non‐DC components that are not due to summation of pure double‐couple (DC) components, provide important insight into special physical processes in non‐earthquake sources such as explosion, volcano eruption and collapse etc. Yet they remain challenging to be resolved. To address the issue and explore the physical mechanism of those special events, we develop a waveform‐polarity‐based moment tensor (WPMT) inversion method and employ it to study physical process in the 2014–2015 Bárðarbunga volcano event sequence. The WPMT method incorporates P ‐wave polarity data and seismic waveforms in the source inversion, designs a source simplicity test to check possible complex rupture in the seismic source, and employs a simulated annealing algorithm to search the best source solution. The simplicity test checks consistency of the source processes in the initiation stage of the event and the major energy release process of the event, thus ensuring that the inferred non‐DC components are genuine to the seismic source. Real event and synthetic tests indicate that the WPMT method can identify and resolve genuine non‐DC components in a seismic source. The WPMT inversions of the Bárðarbunga sequence yield many genuine non‐DC source components and reveal that the eruptions are accompanied by seismic activities in depths of 1–5 km with magma migrations out of chambers, collapses of conduits, failures of normal faults, and a magma recharge at a depth of 9 km accompanied by a failure on a nearby normal fault.

  PublisherDOI

• Comment on “An Evaluation of the Timing Accuracy of Global and Regional Seismic Stations and Networks” by Yang <i>et al.</i> (2021)

  Seismological Research Letters · 2024-09-04 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Yang et al. (2021; hereafter, YSR21) reported widespread clock errors at global and regional stations by measuring travel-time residuals of repeating earthquakes (doublets) after the corrections for relative event parameters and claimed that the reported temporal changes in the inner core boundary (ICB) in Wen (2006; hereafter, Wen06) were a “misidentification” after correcting the clock errors and instrumental changes of the seismic stations. Here, we examine their claims with a focus on the reported “problematic” stations AAK and OBN and the two associated doublets they emphasized in the inner core study. Forward calculations show that: (1) YSR21’s doublet relocation results contain large errors, generating large travel-time residuals in the individual stations and in the depth-sensitive phases, (2) YSR21’s selection of “problematic stations” is not supported by the travel-time residuals predicted from their relocation results, and (3) YSR21’s reported clock errors of the two stations are not reproducible based on their relocation results. Our reanalysis of the doublet data, which yields a much better fit to the observations, indicates no clock error at OBN and no justifiable claim of a clock error at AAK. Accordingly, YSR21’s manual shifts by clock errors to the OBN and AAK observations of Wen06 are not justified, and their resultant claim of “misidentification” of the temporal ICB change in Wen06 is unfounded. We further show that the effect of instrument changes can be simply corrected by the deconvolution of instrument responses, and the temporal change of PKiKP at station ARU in Wen06 is evident after the correction. Our study confirms the reported ICB temporal change in Wen06. The inaccurate relocation and unreproducible results in YSR21 raise questions on their claim of prevailing clock errors in the global stations and the validity of the past inner core studies by the two leading authors.

  PublisherDOI

• Paleo-ocean and Evolution of Mars Revealed by Seismic Crustal Stratigraphy

  2024-10-30

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  While an early wet Mars is well established along many lines of scientific evidence, it remains vigorously debated in what forms water existed in the early Mars and how Mars transitioned from a wet planet into a dry planet. Here, we construct a detailed seismic stratigraphy from the source region of a marsquake in Cerberus Fossae to the InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) landing site to decipher the evolution of Mars. Seismic velocity structures are constrained with combined seismic constraints of waveforms recorded for the marsquake and receiver functions extracted from the seismic data of three marsquakes, while the crustal composition and pore property are inferred based on rock physics modeling of the inferred seismic structure and constraints of porosity-depth profiles beneath Mars. Seismic stratigraphy reveals a liquid-water saturated smectite-chlorite-enriched sedimentary layer at 2.65-3.85 km beneath Martian surface and a transition from the dry surface basaltic layer to liquid-water saturated overlain crustal layers, suggesting that early wet Mars experienced a paleo-ocean and a resurface event in the northern plain before transitioning into a dry planet and covered by the emplacement of the Elysium volcanic unit in Hesperian and Amazonian. Our results indicate that the major early records of planetary water history are buried deep in the Martian crust, and so is the possible evidence of early life on Mars. Magmatic perturbations of the deep water reservoir would also provide an explanation for possible subsequent oceans proposed at different stages of the Martian history.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Testing Mineralogical Models of the Mantle Transition Zone Using Seismic Data

  NSF · $172k · 2005–2008

• High-resolution mapping of several prominent seismic anomalies in the lower mantle

  NSF · $276k · 2009–2012

• Determining temporal change of seismic properties inside the Earth using repeated earthquakes

  NSF · $279k · 2012–2015

• Constraining Two Prominent Low-Velocity Anomalies in the Lower Mantle beneath Africa and Pacific

  NSF · $208k · 2003–2007

• High-resolution Mapping of Seismic Structures in the Lower Mantle

  NSF · $250k · 2006–2010

Frequent coauthors

• Li Sun

  Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences

  94 shared

• Weilai Wang

  Henan Normal University

  80 shared

• Xiao Xiao

  Central South University

  71 shared

• Yumei He

  Chinese Academy of Sciences

  61 shared

• Shihua Cheng

  University of Science and Technology of China

  53 shared

• Jian Wu

  Hebei Medical University

  50 shared

• Xiaoxin Wang

  Chinese Academy of Sciences

  46 shared

• Xiaoxin Wang

  Dezhou University

  44 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  California Institute of Technology

  1998