First International Symposium on Submarine Mass Movements and Their Consequences

As part of the EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Meeting Nice (France) April 7-11th 2003

Bulletin No. 1

The First International Symposium on Submarine Mass Movements and Their Consequences will be held as part of the 2003 EGS-AGU- EUG joint meeting in Nice, France, from April 7-11th 2003. This Symposium is co-chaired by Jacques Locat (locat@ggl.ulaval.ca) and Juergen Mienert (juergen.mienert@ibg.uit.no). This Symposium is organized as part of ongoing COSTA (COntinental Slope STAblity) research programmes both in Europe and in North America, as well as EuroSTRATAFORM. The proceedings of the Symposium will be made available at the time of the meeting in a special book (discussion are underway for a publication by Balkema). This is in addition to the abstracts to be part of the regular proceedings of the 2003 EGS-AGU-EUG meeting in Nice.

Because of ongoing development of offshore resources along margins and the continental slope, and the growing development of the coastal zone, the Symposium will benefit the community by advancing our knowledge of :

• potentially stable or unstable continental slopes, valuable to installations and to the health and safety of offshore and coastal regions;

• the possible presence of gas hydrates and free gas zones so as to improve environmental protection during offshore activities such as cable, pipeline and drilling work;

• forces and release mechanisms of slope failures on margins, and of endangered areas, for a major contribution to sustainable development;

• establish, describe and develop tool for evaluating the consequences of submarine mass movements to the sea floor, man-made structures or coastal communities;

• links between the submarine mass movements and the generation of tsunamis.

• predictive tools and risk assessment of continental slope activity for the next 100 -1000 years.

1. Assessment of historical records of slope instability, slope parameters, seismicity, and tectonic setting.
2. Understanding of seafloor failure dynamics through 3-D imaging of sediment architecture and geometry of slope failures.
3. Understanding of sediment physical, mechanical and elastic properties of slip planes and areas prone to slope sliding.
4. Determination of presence of gas hydrates and its significance for slope stability.
5. Modelling of forces and mechanical processes that control the initiation of slope instabilities (release mechanisms), flow dynamics and initiation of tsunamis.
6. Assessment of risk-fields related to slope stability.

In addition to filling the regular registration documents (including abstracts) and to follow the EGS/AGU-EUG procedures, Authors participating to the Symposium should submit to the Symposium secretariat:

1. A letter of intent with a title and a short summary by July 15th 2002.

2. Their paper by September 15th 2002 for review.

3. The final paper to be received by December 15th 2002 with a payment of 60 Euros to cover the cost of the Symposium proceedings (we may be able to obtain some financial support to reduce this amount).

We expect that papers will consist of a maximum of 6 pages (including figures and references) in a double column A4 format. Details on how to prepare the papers will be made available as soon as possible on our web sites (www.costa-canada.ggl.ulaval.ca and www.costa-europe.org).

For letters of intent to submit a paper, please send your electronic mail (Email), before July 15th to :

Luc Boisvert, Secretary
Department of Geology and Geological Engineering,
Laval University, Québec, Qc, Canada, G1K 7P4
Email: luc.boisvert@ggl.ulaval.ca

We look forward to your contribution.

Jacques Locat and Juergen Mienert

May 17th 2002.

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