Biography
Distinguished Chair Professor Niu is a seismologist whose research focuses on the development and application of seismic techniques to investigate Earth’s interior. His work spans a wide range of Earth structures, from inner core structure to sedimentary basins and fault zone properties.
Early in his career, Fenglin discovered sharp seismic boundaries at the top of the lower mantle (approximately 800–1200 km depth) that strongly scatter seismic waves. Professor Niu has also made significant contributions to our understanding of Earth’s inner core. In 2001, he demonstrated that the outermost ~100 km of the inner core exhibits different isotropic seismic velocities between the eastern and western hemispheres. This discovery placed direct constraints on inner core growth processes and motivated numerous geodynamic models aimed at explaining this hemispherical structure. In a subsequent study, he showed that the anisotropy of the innermost inner core differs from that at shallower depths, based on the identification and analysis of a newly recognized PKIIKP seismic phase.
More recently, Professor Niu has developed a strong interest in earthquake physics, particularly in advancing seismic imaging techniques for monitoring subsurface stress fields along major faults. His 2008 study of preseismic velocity changes along the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas Fault, California, was widely cited and received significant media attention.
Professor Niu was a faculty member at Rice University and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Research Interests
Global Seismology, Seismic Imaging, Waveform Tomography
Seismic Structure of Earth’s Deep Mantle and Core
Earthquake Seismology
Time-lapse Seismic Imaging, Monitoring of Subsurface Stress/Strain Field and Fault Strength
Microseismic Monitoring
Educational background
Ph.D., in Geophysics, University of Tokyo, April 1994 - March 1997, Thesis: Seismic Constraints on the Mantle
Transition Zone Discontinuities
M.S., in Geophysics, University of Tokyo, January 1992 - March 1994
B.S., in Geophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, September 1983-July 1988
Publications
Selected publications:
Wang, X., Chen, Q.-F., Niu, F., Wei, S., Ning, J., Li, J., Wang, W., Buchen, J., & Liu, L. (2020). Distinct slab interfaces imaged within the mantle transition zone, Nature Geoscience,13, 822-827, doi:10.1038/s41561-020-00653-5
Pei, S., Niu, F., Ben-Zion, Y., Sun, Q., Liu, Y., Xue, X., Su, J., & Shao, Z. (2019). Seismic velocity reduction and accelerated recovery due to earthquakes on the Longmenshan fault, Nature Geoscience, 12, 387-392,doi:10.1038/s41561-019-0347-1
Chen, M., Niu, F., Tromp, J., Lenardic, A., Lee, C.-T., Cao, W., & Ribeiro, J. (2017). Lithosphere foundering and underthrusting imaged beneath Tibet, Nature Communications, 8,15659, doi: 10.1038/ncomms15659.
Levander, A., Bezada, M.J., Niu, F., Humphreys, E.D., Palomeras, I., Thurner, S.M., Masy, J., Schmitz, M., Gallart, J., Carbonell, R., & Miller, M.S. (2014). Subduction-driven recycling of continental margin lithosphere, Nature, 515, 253-256.
Tang, Y., Obayashi, M., Niu, F., Grand, S., Chen, J.Y., Kawakatsu, H., Tanaka, S., Ning, J., & Ni, J. (2014). Changbaishan volcanism in northeast China linked to subduction-induced mantle upwelling, Nature Geoscience, 7, 470-475, doi:10.1038/ngeo2166.
Taira, T., Silver, P. G., Niu, F., & Nadeau, R.M. (2009). Remote triggering of fault-strength changes on the San Andreas fault at Parkfield, Nature, 461, 636-639, doi:10.1038/nge:10.1038/nature08395.
Niu, F., & Chen, Q.F. (2008). Seismic evidence for distinct anisotropy in the innermost inner core, Nature Geoscience, 1, 692 - 696, doi:10.1038/ngeo314.
Niu, F., Silver, P., Daley, T., Cheng, X., & Majer, E. (2008). Preseismic velocity changes observed from active source monitoring at the Parkfield SAFOD drill site, Nature, 454, 204-209, doi:10.1038/nature07111.
Niu, F., Silver, P.G., Nadeau, R.M., & McEvilly, T.V. (2003). Migration of seismic scatterers associated with the 1993 Parkfield aseismic transient event, Nature, 426, 544-548.
Niu, F., & Wen, L. (2001). Hemispherical variations in seismic velocity at the top of the Earth's inner core, Nature, 410, 1081-1084.
Kawakatsu, H., & Niu, F. (1994). Seismic evidence for a 920-km discontinuity in the mantle, Nature, 371, 301-305.