University of Southern California
Department of Earth Sciences
3651 Trousdale Pkwy, ZHS 117
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0740

1. Effect of plasticity on properties of dynamic ruptures.

2. Energy parition during dynamic rupture processes in models of earthquake faults at different evolutionary stages.

3. Dynamic Rupture along a bimaterial interface: its properties and implications for earthquake stdudies.

4. Imaging fault-zone structure using fault-zone head waves and trapped waves.

5. Seismic radiation from sources with tensile component and on faults separating dissimilar solids.

Selected Publications

1. Shi, Z., Needleman, A. and Ben-Zion, Y. (2009). Frictional slip modes and partition of energy during dynamical frictional sliding between identical elastic-viscoplastic solids, International Journal of Fracture, in review.

2. Shi, Z. and Ben-Zion, Y. (2009). Seismic radiation from tensile and shear point dislocations between similar and dissimilar solids, Geophysical Journal International, in press.

3. Zhao, P., Peng, Z., Shi, Z., Lewis, M. A. and Ben-Zion, Y. (2009). Variations of the Velocity Contrast and Rupture Properties of M6 Earthquakes along the Parkfield Section of the San Andreas Fault, Geophysical Journal International, in review.

4. Shi, Z., Ben-Zion, Y., and Needleman A. (2008). Properties of dynamic rupture and energy partition in a solid with a frictional interface, Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 56, 5-24, doi:10.1016/j.jmps.2007.04.006. (PDF available)

5. Shi, Z. and Ben-Zion, Y. (2006). Dynamic rupture on a bimaterial interface governed by slip-weakening friction, Geophysical Journal International, 165, 469-484. (PDF available)

6. Ben-Zion, Y. and Shi, Z. (2005). Dynamic Rupture on a Material Interface with Spontaneous Generation of Plastic Strain in the Bulk, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 236, 486-496.  (PDF available)

Teaching assistant for
Geol 240: Earthquakes (Spring 2009)
Geol 450: Geosystems (Fall 2008)
Geol 534: Mechanics of Lithospheric Deformation (Spring 2006)