Jesús Muñoz is a geologist whose research explores how fluids and deformation interact along subduction interfaces and within the Earth’s crust. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences at Andrés Bello University in Chile, he obtained a MIEM Excellence Scholarship, which enabled him to complete both the International Master (2017–2018) and the PhD program (2018–2021) at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP, France). At IPGP, he investigated ophiolitic complexes in Central Chile and the Zagros Orogen, focusing on the products of fluid–rock interaction in high pressure and low temperature environments and on feedbacks between fluid flow and brittle–ductile deformation. From 2022 to 2025, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Structural Geology & Tectonics group at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, where his work focused on high resolution structural mapping of subduction interfaces and quantifying their rheological and petrophysical properties. His broader research interests include the role of seamount subduction in mass transfer to high pressure conditions, the mechanical consequences of fluids released during blueschist-to-eclogite metamorphic transitions, and the physical properties of exhumed lithologies containing structural anisotropies. Beyond subduction, he is interested in how fluids migrate through the crust and drive chemical–mechanical feedbacks over a wide range of time scales, from long term mountain building to nearly instantaneous fracturing events. Jesús has recently broadened his collaborative network by working with geophysicists to apply geological and petrological expertise to constrain the hydraulic and mechanical properties of the present-day Chilean subduction margin, and by participating in fieldwork in Greenland, where the group is currently examining melt–rock interactions and their chemical–mechanical consequences in Early Archean rocks.

Since May 2026, Jesús has led the Humboldt funded project “From the Oceans to Mantle Roots: Understanding How Fluids Control the Rheology of Intermediate-Depth Seismicity Using an Integrated Petro-Structural and Numerical Approach”. Using the Zermatt-Saas unit, a multi-kilometric stack of oceanic lithosphere exposed in the Western Alps, he will integrate high resolution drone surveys, three-dimensional geological modelling, petrological and geochemical analyses, microstructural studies, and numerical simulations to quantify how the presence or absence of volatiles influences the mechanics of intermediate-depth earthquakes. The project is hosted in Prof. Timm John’s Mineralogy–Petrology group at FU Berlin and involves field expeditions to the Alpine region. At FU Berlin, the project will bring together researchers who study earthquakes from different perspectives. By combining field geology and petrology, the project will help connect what we see in ancient rocks with what geophysicists observe in active subduction zones today. It will also create stronger links between the tectonics and petrology groups at FU Berlin and geophysicists at GFZ Potsdam, with the shared goal of better understanding how fluids influence deep earthquakes.