The Japan Trench, a tectonically highly sensitive deep-sea trench in the Pacific, contains a rare archive: the sediment deposits at a depth of 7.5 to 8 kilometers bear witness to historical strong earthquake events. From the end of November to mid-December, an international team with Tyrolean researchers took samples there again – this time with a deep-sea drilling ship. The drill cores now look back “probably several hundred thousand years,” reported geologist Michael Strasser.
