Land-to-Sea Shaking Studies workshop participants at the Wuchang temple damaged by the 1999 M7.7 Chi-chi earthquake

Innsbruck-led international workshop advances paleoearthquake studies from land to sea

Land-to-Sea Shaking Studies (L2S3)

In October 2025, Charlotte Pizer and Jyh-Jaan Steven Huang (formerly University of Innsbruck, now National Taiwan University) co-led the international Land-to-Sea Shaking Studies (L2S3) workshop at National Taiwan University.

Joined by Jasper Moernaut and Michael Strasser, the event brought together 80 scientists from 12 countries to explore how sedimentary records on land and in the ocean can be combined to better understand earthquake recurrence and hazard processes at active plate boundaries.

Supported by the ECORD/ICDP MagellanPlus Programme with co-funding from several international bodies, the workshop united geologists, sedimentologists, and seismologists across all career stages in an inspiring and collaborative environment over 4 days.

Participants identified key challenges and directions for future paleoseismic studies, including improving age control for alongstrike corelation, using modern analogues to calibrate seismic and non-seismic turbidity current triggers, and developing stronger mechanistic links between earthquake parameters and sedimentary signatures.

Group discussions helped develop exciting new proposals for marine and lacustrine drilling in locations such as the Hikurangi margin (New Zealand), Alaska, and the Caribbean. The great achievements of the workshop therefore mark a major step toward globally coordinated, hypothesis-driven “amphibious” paleoseismic research that will advance understanding of earthquake hazards and strengthen international collaboration in geoscience.