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Office Hours:ÌýTuesday 9:00amÌý- 11:00am in DUAN F713 or viaÌýÌý•ÌýÌý•

Research Interests:

Our research interests have been primarily in understanding the physical processes that control the evolution of terrestrial planets (Earth, Moon, Mars, ...). Modern space exploration has provided high resolution gravity and topography data about many planets. Other observational techniques including seismology and in-situ sampling have revealed the structure and composition of planetary interiors (primarily for Earth and its Moon, but soon for Mars as well). Understanding the physical processes that are responsible for these observations and how they are related to thermal evolution of planets is our primary goal of research. Because the planetary dynamics depend on how a planet responds to forces (i.e., a material property called the rheology), another major aspect of our research is to understand the rheological properties of Earth's materials.

Selected Publications:

1. Muirhead A.C., and S.J. Zhong, Correlation of deep moonquakes and mare basalts: Implications for lunar mantle evolution, submitted.
2. Zhang, N. and S.J. Zhong, Heat fluxes at the Earth's surface and core-mantle boundary since Pangea formation and their implications for the geomagnetic superchrons, submitted to Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.
3. Leng, W., and S.J. Zhong, Implementation and application of adaptive mesh refinement for thermochemical mantle convection studies, submitted to G^3.
4. Hynek, B.M., S.J. Robbins, O. Sramek, and S.J. Zhong, Geological evidence for a migrating Tharsis plume on early Mars, submitted to Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.
5. Jones, C.H., G.L. Farmer, B. Sageman, and S.J. Zhong, A hydodynamic mechanism for the Laramide orogeny, Geosphere, in press.
6. Sramek, O., and S.J. Zhong, Long-wavelength stagnant-lid convection with hemispheric variation in lithospheric thickness: link between Martian crustal dichotomy and Tharsis? J. Geophys. Res.-Planets, 115, E09010, doi:10.1029/2010JE003597,Ìý2010.
7. Leng, W. and S.J. Zhong, Constraints on viscous dissipation of plate bending from compressible mantle convection, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 297, 154-164, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2010.06.016,Ìý2010.
8. Harig, C., S.J. Zhong, and F.J. Simons, Constraints on upper-mantle viscosity inferred from the flow-induced pressure gradient across a continental keel, G^3, 11, Q06004, doi:10.1029/2010GC003038,Ìý2010.
9. Leng, W. and S.J. Zhong, Surface subsidence caused by mantle plumes and volcanic loading in large igneous provinces, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 291, 207-214,Ìý2010.
10. Zhang, N., S.J. Zhong, W. Leng, and Z.X. Li, A model for the evolution of the Earth's mantle structure since the Early Paleozoic, J. Geophys. Res., 115, B06401, doi:10.1029/2009JB006896,Ìý2010.