Taiyi Wang ’19 joins Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at University of Texas
Wang studied geology and mathematics at Carleton.
Taiyi Wang ’19 has joined the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Texas as an assistant professor. He is a geophysicist who studies the mechanics of earthquakes and volcanoes.
Earthquake mechanics and volcanology are traditionally separate disciplines in the geosciences. Wang combines them in his study of the fractures under the Earth’s surface and the fluids — such as magma or water — that flow through them.
“In the most fundamental way, whenever there’s a large amount of fluid moving around in the crust, it creates stress, and stress can lead to small earthquakes. These small earthquakes are important for understanding what volcanoes are doing,” Wang said.
Wang first got interested in studying volcanology when he was an undergraduate at Carleton College. He took a three-month field course in New Zealand where he saw active volcanos for the first time. The experience made him want to understand everything about how they work, and what subsurface processes lead to eruptions.
Wang’s expertise lays in coupling observations motivated by geology with the mathematics and mechanics needed for physics-based modeling.