Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.
Source: AGU Advances
Deep earthquakes are still a mystery that has been debated for a long time, but no consensus has been made so far. They originate at depths of 500 to 700 kilometers where there are extreme pressure and temperature conditions that should prevent the failure mechanisms that generate shallow earthquakes. Despite decades of observations and various proposed theories, a coherent mechanism that accounts for deep earthquake magnitudes has yet to be identified.
Jia et al. [2025] present an unprecedented analysis of 40 deep earthquakes worldwide with large magnitudes. They find that most of them are governed by a common mechanism facilitated by shear thermal runaway, ultimately allowing earthquakes to grow larger and release more energy. This explanation applies to deep earthquakes across diverse environments, from the coldest slabs such as Tonga, to the warmest, including those beneath South America.
Citation: Jia, Z., Fan, W., Mao, W., Shearer, P. M., & May, D. A. (2025). Dual mechanism transition controls rupture development of large deep earthquakes. AGU Advances, 6, e2025AV001701. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025AV001701
—Alberto Montanari, Editor-in-Chief, AGU Advances