Did you know that the Grand Bank earthquake of 1929 triggered a huge submarine mass movement which broke submarine cables over a distance of up to 1000 km from its source and generated a tsunami which devastated a small village in Newfoundland killing 27 people? The same happened in Papua New Guinea in 1998 with more than 2000 casualties. Submarine mass movements of various sizes and styles are shaping the sea floor and are of concern for many facets of human activities both onshore and offshore. These include the development of natural resources, energy and communication transport, coastal...

Submarine mass movements and their consequences are of major concern for coastal communities and infrastructures but also for the exploitation and the development of seafloor resources. A tragic example of the vulnerability of coastal communities has been provided by the Indonesian tsunami of December 2004. Since 2005, as part of the scientific community efforts to minimize the impact of such natural disasters, the International Union of Geological Science (IUGS) and the United Nation, Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have sponsored an International Geoscience...

This book is one out of 8 IAEG XII Congress volumes, and deals with the processes occurring on the coastal zone, which represents a critical interface between land and sea, as the contribution of the ocean to the provision of energy and mineral resources will likely increase in the coming decades. Several related topics fit into this volume, such as: coastal developments and infrastructures; dredging and beach re-nourishment; sediment erosion, transport and accumulation; geohazard assessment; seafloor uses; seabed mapping; exploration and exploitation of the seafloor, of the sub-seafloor, and...

The Engineering Geology for Society and Territory volumes of the IAEG XII Congress held in Torino from September 15-19, 2014, analyze the dynamic role of engineering geology in our changing world and build on the four main themes of the congress: environment, processes, issues and approaches.