A group of about 30 people from the University of Innsbruck—professors, PhD and master’s degree students, and other students—took part in a Sedimentary Geology research and study trip to Taiwan from February 3 to February 21. The University of Innsbruck is located in the middle of the Easter Alps and the university has a long tradition of research of mountain regions worldwide.

Taiwan has more than 268 peaks over 3000 meters, making it an ideal place for mountain research for people working in a wide range of disciplines. Taiwan is very active tectonically and also experiences frequent typhoons, and this gives Taiwan uniquely high rates of uplift, precipitation, denudation, and sedimentation: the rates are several orders higher compared to those in the Alps.  Prof. Michael Strasser led the Sedimentary Geology Working Group of the University of Innsbruck and interdisciplinary colleagues’ researchers and students from Austria to Taiwan, where they interacted with Taiwanese colleagues and students, and colleagues from other European countries and Japan.

During their stay, the Austrian researchers and students attended a workshop on Extreme Events Archived in Geological Records: Opportunities and Challenges at the Institute of Oceanography of National Taiwan University, with twenty Taiwanese scientists. They engaged in field sampling and lab work for a pilot study project in central Taiwan, and they discussed and addressed a wide range of topics relevant to different aspects of mountain areas. These included geohazards, climate related changes, active tectonics, mountain building processes, the impact of globalization on the ecology, environment-human interactions …. in a source-to-sink context (i.e. from mountain tops to deep oceans).

This study and research visit and related efforts have enhanced the current research cooperation between Taiwan and Austria and helped to provide an interdisciplinary platform for the students who will become future mountain research leaders.