Sedimentary Geology Innsbruck
Research Highlights

Earthquake control of large prehistoric rockslides in the Eastern Alps
We shed new light on a long-lasting debate about the trigger mechanism of large rockslides in the Tyrolian Alps. Our state-of-the-art lake paleoseismolgy approach documents prehistoric earthquakes, larger than any of the reported historical events, that degraded the steep rock slopes towards failure.

Organic carbon export to the hadal seafloor triggered by large earthquakes
We have integrated state-of-the-art methods to reveal drastic export of organic carbon to the hadal trench, shedding new light on the impact of large earthquakes on the deep-sea carbon cycle.

A lake sediment perspective on time-dependent recurrence of strong earthquake shaking near plate boundaries
A worldwide review of lacustrine paleoseismology reveals contrasting recurrence patterns for strong earthquakes at plate boundaries and intra-plate settings.
News

New Paper in Total Environment Advances
We contributed to a new interdisciplinary study using Lake Altaussee as a model to investigate alpine lake ecosystems under climate change

New Paper in Sedimentary Geology
We contributed to a new study demonstrating how OH defects and molecular water in quartz can aid sediment provenance analysis.

New Paper on bioturbation in a hadal trench
For the first time, we report trace fossils in a hadal trench and document biogenic colonization successions within gravity flow deposits in IODP cores from the Japan Trench,

New Review Paper on Lacustrine Records of Past Seismic Shaking
Jasper Moernaut together with other international leaders in the field of Lake Paleoseismology, contributed a review paper summarizing the principles of quantitative lacustrine paleoseismology in "Understanding Earthquakes"

New Paper in CATENA
We contributed core scanning data and analyses to a new study reconstructing Holocene environmental change in the Krka River estuary, eastern Adriatic.

New Paper in Geology
We report geological evidence for repeated slip-to-the-trench style megathrust earthquakes at the Japan Trench

New Paper in Deep Sea Research
We contribute to a study characterizing the sediments in the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Ocean in Mariana Trench

New Paper in Nature Communications
A new study resulting from the Japan Trench IODP Expedition reports dissolved organic carbon (DOC) signatures in the hadal trench bottom water.

New Paper in Global and Planetary Change
We contributed to a new study on event deposits in IODP cores from the South China Sea revealing clustered slumping between 0.6 and 0.4 Ma