Herbert F. Wang Professor Address/E-mail Program Affiliations Education Fields of Interest Summary For additional information, see my

Contact Information

142 Lewis G. Weeks Hall For Geological Science 1215 West Dayton Street Madison, WI 53706

Tel: 608/262-5932 E-mail: wang@geology.wisc.edu

Program Affiliations

• Geological Engineering Program
• Geology and Geophysics

Education

• PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1971

Fields of Interest

• poroelastic behavior of fracture rock
• numerical modeling of fluid flow, thermal history, and chemical diffusion related to geologic processes

Summary

I am interested in the physical properties of rocks and geodynamical modeling because they link observations to geologic processes. My laboratory research involves measuring the complete set of poroelastic moduli that characterize the coupled fluid flow and stress behavior of rock. The laboratory work is tied in with the numerical modeling of poroelastic phenomena such as the passage of a pressure pulse through a laboratory sample and the deformation of an aquifer during pumping. On the theoretical side, I am interested in the extension of poroelastic theory to fractured rock.

My past work in modeling geodynamical processes has included a detailed temperature-time history for the Caledonides in Norway, mechanical models for the 1.1 billion-year-old Midcontinent rift system and ground deformation in the Long Valley caldera. I have also used the concepts of double porosity fracture flow to model chemical and isotope diffusion in rocks at high temperatures containing a fluid phase along grain boundaries.