Under the collaboration with a group (led by Prof. WANG Ruijia) from the Southern University of Science and Technology, we conduct fieldwork to deploy seismic stations in Zigong, Sichuan, to monitor the seismicity around the Weiyuan shale gas field. Our group members, including two PhD students (Jinping and Juhao) and three postdocs (Jia, Jiewen, and Chunyu) are involved in this fieldwork.

In recent years, the local seismicity induced by the shale gas production activities in that region has drawn high social concerns. Our group have conducted research in this region. Details can be found on the publication page.

A Research Spotlight article published on Eos.org highlights our recently published Geophysical Research Letters paper “Deep Outer-Rise Faults in the Southern Mariana Subduction Zone Indicated by a Machine-Learning-Based High-Resolution Earthquake Catalog” (EOS). The first author of this paper is CHEN Han, a PhD student in our group. This great news has been posted by Science Faculty via different platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter ) Congratulations!

Prof. YANG Hongfeng is awarded the Faculty Exemplary Teaching Award 2021 for his quality teaching. Congratulations to Prof. Yang!

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The project "Dynamics of Plate Suduction and its Control on Tectonic Evolution of South China Sea (大洋板块俯冲动力学机制及对南海构造演化的控制作用)" was awarded as 2021 grand-prize project by the Academy of Ocean of China. Prof. Yang contributed to this project as one of the principle investigators. Jiangyang Zhang, who was a postdoc in our group from 2019.5 -2021.5, contribiuted to this project through investigating the bending of subducting plates.

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Chan Yuk Po, Bowie, a MPhil in our group since 2020.08, passed her thesis defense. Congratulations to Bowie!

Jeremy Wong, an undergraduate alumnus of our group, was awarded by the Joseph Needham Merit Scholarship in 2022 for his excellent academic performance. Jeremy is the first student in ESSC that won this award. Now he is doing his PhD program is UCSD (US). Congratulations to Jeremy!

Suli Yao, a PhD student in our group, passed her PhD thesis defense on 20th May. Congratulations to Suli!

Gaohua Zhu, who was in our group as a PhD student (2016-2020) and a postdoc (2020-2022), was selected by the 100-Talent program of Chinese Academy of Science. She will start soon as a research professor in the institute of oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Congratulations to Gaohua!

The CUSeisTut is a website that contains 15 micro-modules on tools used in seismological research . The CUSeisTut website is a product of the project “Developing hands-on micro modules of seismological data processing”, supported by the Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant (TDLEG) of CUHK. Link to CUSeisTut.

Suli YAO, a PhD student in our group, participated in the 2022 Global Young Scientist Summit. The summit was hold online in Jan. Sharing from Suli on the e-newsletter of CUHK Science Faculty.

Dr. WENG Huihui, who worked in our group as a postdoc from 2015.09 to 2018.04, received the prestigious Excellent Youth Award of NSFC (Oversea) in 2021. Huihui's research focuses on earthquake dynamics. In addition, Huihui will join Nanjing University as an assistant professor in fall 2022. Congratulations!

Suli YAO, a PhD graduate student in our group, received the CUHK Outstanding Student Award. Congratulations!

Dr. JIANG Xiohuan, who has been a postdoc in our group in SZRI since 2019.7, just joined Wuhan Polytechnic University as a lecturer. Congratulations to Xiaohuan!

Dr. GUO Rumeng, who worked as a postdoc in our group from 2020.9 to 2021.8, just moved to the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics，Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, as an associate research fellow. Rumeng's research focuses on resolving the interseismic and coseismic fault behaviors using the surface deformation data. Congratulations to Rumeng!

Recently, our group has conducted a comprehensive study of the high-resolution structure and earthquakes near the Challenger Deep, the deepest spot on the Earth. The results showed for the first time how much water is carried into subduction zones in southern Mariana. Since the subducting plate is the primary channel from which water can enter the Earth’s interior, estimating the amount of water carried into the subduction zone plays an important role in the global water and material cycle. The article has been published in Geophysical Research Letters.

This great news has been reported by the CUHK Press Release in English and in Chinese, Sina, Chinahot, and so on.

ESSC undergraduate student WONG Wing Ching Jeremy has recently published an article as the lead author in Earth and Planetary Physics. Jeremy joined our group in year 2 and has been studying induced earthquakes in Sichuan, China. Congratulations to Jeremy!
link to the paper
report on the ESSC website.

Xiang Chen, a PhD student in our group, passed her PhD thesis defense on 17th Aug. Xiang did an excellent job in giving the public presentation and answering the questions from the audience and the committee. Congratulations to Xiang!

Xiang and the defense committee after the thesis defense.

Jeremy Wong, an undergraduate student in our group, received the Award for Excellence and Service in ESSC (2020/21) and Sophie Wai Chee Cheng Research Prize (2020/21)​. In addition, Jeremy won the second runner-up prize in the AGS(HK) Final Year Project Competition. Congratulations!

Bowie Chan, a Mphil student in our group, was awarded the Sophie Wai Chee Cheng Research Prize (2019/20), Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (2020-21), Award for Excellence and Service in ESSC (2020-21), and Rebecca Oi Hang Pang Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations!

Junhao Song, a PhD student in our group, received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (2019-20). Congratulations!

Dr. ZHANG Jiangyang，who has been working in our group as a postdoc since 2019.05, now moved to South China Sea Intitute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, as a research assistant. Jiangyang's research focuses on the mechanics of plate bending in subduction zone. Congratulations to Jiangyang!

Suli Yao, a PhD student in our group, received the Best Presentation Award in the 2020-2021 Science Faculty Postgraduate Research Day , which was held on 8th Jan 2021. The Research Day invited 14 postgraduate students nominated by different divisions to present their innovative research results. Suli presented her work on investigating the frictional strength on the Nicoya megathrust. Congratulations!

Suli Yao, a PhD graduate student in our group, received the Best Student Presentation Award at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Section - Seismological Society of America (ES-SSA). Suli presented her work on deriving ground motion predictions based on interseismic locking models in Nicoya. The video of her talk is available on YouTube (link). Congratulations!

An unusually shallow earthquake triggered by hydraulic fracturing in the Weiyuan shale gas field could change how experts view the risks of fracking for faults that lie very near the Earth's surface.

In the journal Seismological Research Letters, Hongfeng Yang of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and colleagues suggest that the magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck Rongxian County, Sichuan, China on 25 February 2019 took place along a fault about one kilometer (0.6 miles) deep.

The earthquake, along with two foreshocks with magnitudes larger than 4, appears to be related to activity at nearby hydraulic fracturing wells. Although earthquakes induced by human activity such as fracking are typically more shallow than natural earthquakes, it is rare for any earthquakes of this size to take place at such a shallow depth.

Such shallow earthquake has raised great social concerns and has been reported by various media such as the CUHK, hket topick, singtao, and phys.org.

Pengcheng Zhou, a PhD student in our group, passed his PhD thesis defense on 22nd Sep. Pengcheng did an excellent job in giving the public presentation and answering the questions from the audience and the committee. Congratulations!

Jinping Zi, a new PhD graduate student in our group, received the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme Award (HKPFS). Established by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong in 2009, the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) aims at attracting the best and brightest students in the world to pursue their PhD studies in Hong Kong's universities. Jinping is the first recipient of this award in our group. Congratulations!

Gaohua Zhu, a PhD student in our group, passed her PhD thesis defense on 5th June. Gaohua did an excellent job in giving the public presentation and answering the questions from the audience and the committee. Congratulations!

Gaohua Zhu, a PhD graduate student in our group, received the CUHK Outstanding Student Award for her outstanding academic performance. Gaohua is the first recipient of this award in our department. Congratulations!

Gaohua Zhu on the 2019 Outstanding Student Award Presentation Ceremony.

The Chinese Geophysical Society (CGS) has selected Professor Hongfeng Yang as a recipient of the 2018 Fu Chengyi Young Scientist Award, in recognition of his contributions to integrating earthquake rupture dynamics and observational seismology to advance our understanding of earthquake physics and seismic hazard evaluation. The award ceremony was held in Beijing on October 22. Professor Yang is the first recipient of this prestigious award from Hong Kong.

Suli Yao, a PhD graduate student in our group, received the Oustanding Student Presentation Award in the Annual Meeting of Chinese Geoscience Union (CGU). Suli presented her work on dynamic rupture simulations for megathrust earthquakes in Nicoya. Congratulations!

From 10 January to 3 February, Professor Yang participated in the first China-Pakistan Joint Indian Ocean Expedition on the Shiyan 3 research vessel. The Chinese and Pakistani scientists carried out in-depth investigation on the possibility of future megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis in the Makran trench. The expedition was led by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Pakistan National Institute of Oceanography. For more info please visit the article published on CUHK Newsletter in English and in Chinese .

Dr. ZHANG Fan，who has been working in our group as a postdoc since 2016.01, now moved to South China Sea Intitute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, as a research professor. Congratulations to Fan!

Prof. Yang published an article on Sustainable Campus CUHK (續錄中大), talking about the earthquakes occurred under the oceans. See more info at http://www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/chinese/publications/sustainable-campus/article.aspx?articleid=64286.

Prof. YANG Hongfeng was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal about the earthquake happened last Saturday in Nepal. Please visit the following link for the article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-nepal-earthquake-happened-like-clockwork-1430044358.