Abstract Several recent observations indicate that normal faulting earthquakes occasionally occur on faults dipping <35°, dips often considered shallow. Most of these occur in the Woodlark and Aegean rifts. These two rifts are found to generate significantly more earthquakes than others and are the most rapidly extending, and so display the widest variety of fault behaviour. Even within the Woodlark Rift system extension rates vary along strike, with the shallowest-dipping faults confined to the most rapidly rifting segment. Here, several events (M w 6.0–6.8) feature nodal planes dipping 23–35°. These planes are subparallel to shear zones bounding nearby metamorphic core complexes, including one imaged to 8–9km depth by seismic reflection profiling. In the western Gulf of Corinth at least one large event (M w 6.4) occurred on a fault dipping c. 33°. Similarly to the Woodlark example, this rift segment exhibits a high opening rate (1020mm a -1 ). Several other cases elsewhere, based on older historical data, microseismicity, or geological inference suggest seismic slip at similar or shallower dips. However, no documented large earthquake exhibits seismic slip on subhorizontal surfaces (dip <10–15°). Stress rotation may explain the 23–35° dips, but thus far no realistic mechanism has been found. More likely, these faults represent surfaces somewhat weaker than surrounding rock, through some combination of modest cohesion of the surrounding rock and slightly lower frictional coefficients on the fault. Such weakening may be a consequence of high slip rates, which rapidly generate large offsets, and of mature fault systems.