Intermediate-depth earthquakes (30–300 km) have been extensively documented within subducting oceanic slabs, but their mechanics remains enigmatic. Here we decipher the mechanism of these earthquakes by performing deformation experiments on dehydrating serpentinized peridotites (synthetic antigorite-olivine aggregates, minerals representative of subduction zones lithologies) at upper mantle conditions. At a pressure of 1.1 gigapascals, dehydration of deforming samples containing only 5 vol% of antigorite suffices to trigger acoustic emissions, a laboratory-scale analogue of earthquakes. At 3.5 gigapascals, acoustic emissions are recorded from samples with up to 50 vol% of antigorite. Experimentally produced faults, observed post-mortem, are sealed by fluid-bearing micro-pseudotachylytes. Microstructural observations demonstrate that antigorite dehydration triggered dynamic shear failure of the olivine load-bearing network. These laboratory analogues of intermediate-depth earthquakes demonstrate that little dehydration is required to trigger embrittlement. We propose an alternative model to dehydration-embrittlement in which dehydration-driven stress transfer, rather than fluid overpressure, causes embrittlement.

Phase transformations of metastable olivine might trigger deep-focus earthquakes (400 to 700 kilometers) in cold subducting lithosphere. To explore the feasibility of this mechanism, we performed laboratory deformation experiments on germanium olivine (Mg2GeO4) under differential stress at high pressure (P = 2 to 5 gigapascals) and within a narrow temperature range (T = 1000 to 1250 kelvin). We found that fractures nucleate at the onset of the olivine-to-spinel transition. These fractures propagate dynamically (at a nonnegligible fraction of the shear wave velocity) so that intense acoustic emissions are generated. Similar to deep-focus earthquakes, these acoustic emissions arise from pure shear sources and obey the Gutenberg-Richter law without following Omori's law. Microstructural observations prove that dynamic weakening likely involves superplasticity of the nanocrystalline spinel reaction product at seismic strain rates.