• Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

• B.S. in Physics at Wheaton College
• M.S. in Geological Sciences at Northwestern University
• Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at Northwestern University

News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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U.S.-led team confirms an Alps-like mountain range exists under east Antarctic ice sheet Capstone of NSF-supported International Polar Year Feb. 25, 2009 -- Download Flying twin-engine light aircraft the equivalent of three trips around the globe and working in temperatures that averaged minus 30 degrees Celsius, an international team of scientists, including one from Washington University in St. Louis, has not only verified the existence of a mountain range that is suspected to have caused the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet to form, but also has created a detailed picture of the rugged landscape buried under more than four kilometers (2.5 miles) of ice. Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., WUSTL professor and chair of earth and planetary sciences, is part of the seismology team.

Seeking the oldest ice Wiens heads seismology effort in international Antarctic study Oct. 21, 2008 -- Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., professor and chair of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, will head the seismology research team of an ambitious international effort to map and analyze an unknown part of Antarctica. The project is called AGAP (Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province) after the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, which are the main feature of the region. Wiens, Patrick Shore, computer specialist in earth and planetary sciences, and graduate students David Heizel and Amanda Lough will install 26 seismographs on the frozen surface of central Antarctica, a part of the world that is a geological mystery.

Antarctica's slip is showing Data show Antarctic ice stream radiating seismically June 4, 2008 -- Image courtesy of Doug Wiens Douglas Wiens (left), and a colleague ready equipment to emplace seismographs in Antarctica during a 2001 expedition. A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis along with colleagues at Pennsylvania State University and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have found seismic signals from a giant river of ice in Antarctica that make California's earthquake problem seem trivial. Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and colleagues combined seismological and global positioning system (GPS) analyses to reveal two bursts of seismic waves from an ice stream in Antarctica every day, each one equivalent to a magnitude seven earthquake.

All shook up Midwest now worries about a different fault April 24, 2008 -- Two seismologists at Washington University in St. Louis think the New Madrid Fault may have seen its day and the Wabash Fault is the new kid on the block. "I think everyone's interested in the Wabash Valley Fault because a lot of the attention has been on the New Madrid Fault, but the Wabash Valley Fault could be the more dangerous one, at least for St. Louis and Illinois," said Doug Wiens, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences. "The strongest earthquakes in the last few years have come from the Wabash Valley Fault, which needs more investigation."

Surprise: No tsunami Tonga quake not conducive to tsunami March 5, 2007 -- The figure shows the dynamics of a slab-tear earthquake (top), compared with a shallow thrust earthquake (bottom). The slab-tearing event typically doesn't feature an accompanying tsunami. Download Seismologists at Washington University in St. Louis and their colleagues in Australia, Japan and Tonga have determined why a large earthquake in Tonga did not cause a large tsunami. A tsunami warning was issued around the Pacific Rim following the magnitude 8.0 earthquake on May 3, 2006, but the resulting tsunami was very minor and caused no damage.

'Paul Revere' seismologist would have failed WUSTL seismologist: Tsunami warning system needed in Indian Ocean Jan. 10, 2005 -- Calm seas can turn deadly when tsunamis strike. Tens of thousands of people who perished in the Indonesia tsunami would be alive today had there been a warning system in place in the Indian Ocean basin similar to one in place for 40 years in the Pacific Ocean, says a seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Art & Sciences, says it's unfortunate, but the catastrophic tragedy will be the catalyst for developing such a system, just as the 1964 Alaska tsunami event triggered the installment of the current Pacific Ocean system."

Anatahan yields clues for improved eruption warning systems Seismologists record unexpected volcanic eruption on Pacific isle June 11, 2003 -- Photo by Patrick Shore Anatahan eruption yields spectacular images, seismic data trove. Download Washington University geophysicists were fortunate to observe the May 10 eruption of a long dormant volcano on the uninhabited island Anatahan, part of the U.S.-administered Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas in the western Pacific. A seismograph they deployed there only a few days before the unexpected eruption has captured a trove of important seismic data — a detailed chronology of pre- and post-eruption rumblings. While the team's primary focus is exploring the tectonic forces in the region, the chance capture of detailed volcanic eruption data may offer new avenues of research, perhaps providing tools to help access volcanic and seismic hazards to the people of the Marianas.

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PUBLICATIONS
Wiens has been an author or co-author on 54 publications in refereed journals, including:

• Wiens, D. A., and S. Stein, Age dependence of oceanic intraplate seismicity and implications for lithospheric evolution, J. Geophys. Res., 88, 6455-6468, 1983.

• Wiens, D. A., and S. Stein, Intraplate seismicity and stresses in young oceanic lithosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 11442-11464, 1984.

• Wiens, D. A., S. Stein, C. DeMets, R. G. Gordon, and C. Stein, Plate tectonic models for Indian Ocean "intraplate" deformation, Tectonophysics, 132, 37-48, 1986.

• Wiens, D. A., Bathymetric effects on body waveforms from shallow subduction earthquakes and application to seismic processes in the Kurile trench, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 2955-2972, 1989.

• Pelayo, A. M., and D. A. Wiens, Seismotectonics and relative plate motions in the Scotia region, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 7293-7320, 1989.

• Pelayo, A. M., and D. A. Wiens, Tsunami earthquakes: Slow thrust faulting events in the accretionary wedge, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 15321-15337, 1992.

• Wetzel, R. L., D. A. Wiens, and M. C. Kleinrock, Evidence from earthquakes for bookshelf faulting at large non-transform ridge offsets, Nature, 362, 235-237, 1993.

• Wiens, D. A., J. J. McGuire, and P. J. Shore, Evidence for transformational faulting from a deep double seismic zone in Tonga, Nature, 364, 790-793, 1993.

• Flanagan, M. P., and D. A. Wiens, Radial upper mantle attenuation structure of inactive back-arc basins from differential shear wave measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 15469-15485, 1994.

• Wiens, D. A., J. J. McGuire, P. J. Shore, M. G. Bevis, K. Draunidalo, G. Prasad, S. P. Helu, A deep earthquake aftershock sequence and implications for the rupture mechanism of deep earthquakes Nature, 372, 540-543, 1994.

• Wiens, D. A., and J. J. McGuire, The 1994 Bolivia and Tonga events: Fundamentally different types of deep earthquakes?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 2245-2248, 1995.

• Fischer, K. M., and D. A. Wiens, The depth distribution of mantle anisotropy beneath the Tonga subduction zone, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 142, 253-260, 1996.

• Wiens, D. A., and H. J. Gilbert, Effect of slab temperature on deep-earthquake aftershock productivity and magnitude-frequency relations, Nature, 384, 153-156, 1996

• McGuire, J. J., D. A. Wiens, P. J. Shore, M. G. Bevis, The March 9, 1994 (Mw 7.6) deep Tonga earthquake: Rupture outside the seismically active slabJ. Geophys. Res., 102, 15163-15182, 1997.

• Zhao, D., Y. Xu, D. A. Wiens, L. Dorman, J. Hildebrand, S. Webb, Depth extent of the Lau backarc spreading center and its relationship to subduction processes,Science, 278, 254-257, 1997.

• Xu, Y. and D. A. Wiens, Upper mantle structure of the southwest Pacific from regional waveform inversion, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 27439-27451, 1997.

• Koper, K., D. A. Wiens, L. M. Dorman, J. A. Hildebrand, and S. C. Webb, Modeling the Tonga slab: Can traveltime data resolve a metastable olivine wedge?, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 30079-30100, 1998.

• Wiens, D. A.,Source and aftershock properties of the 1996 Flores Sea Deep Earthquake Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 781-784, 1998.

• Roth, E., D. A. Wiens, L. M. Dorman, J. Hildebrand, and S. C. Webb, Seismic attenuation tomography of the Tonga back-arc region using phase pair methods, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 4795-4809, 1999.

• Koper, K., D. A. Wiens, L. M. Dorman, J. A. Hildebrand, and S. C. Webb, Constraints on the origin of slab and mantle wedge anomalies in Tonga from the ratio of S to P anomalies, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 15089-15104, 1999.

• Koper, K. D., and D. A. Wiens, The waveform effect of metastable olivine in slabs Geophys. Res. Lett., 27,, 573-576, 2000.

• Roth, E. G., D. A. Wiens, and D. Zhao, An empirical relationship betweeen seismic attenuation and velocity anomalies in the upper mantle, Geophys. Res. Lett., in press, 2000.

• Wiens, D. A., and J. J. McGuire, Aftershocks of the March 9, 1994 Tonga earthquake: The strongest known deep earthquake aftershock sequence, J. Geophys. Res., in press, 2000.