Marine Slides and Other Mass Movements

Svend Saxov* and J.K. Nieuwenhuis** *Laboratory of Geophysics, Aarhus University Finlandsgade 6, DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark **Ministry of Transport and Public Works Rijkswaterstaat, Deltadienst Van Alkemadelaan 400, 2597 AT the Hague The Netherlands The NATO Science Committee Special Programme Panel on Marine Sciences decided in September 1979 that a work- ing group should prepare a document dealing with the prob- lems of marine slides. The working group submitted to the Panel a proposal for the arrangement of an interdisciplinary workshop on Marine Slides and other Mass Movements, and the Panel decided to fund such a workshop. Mass movement of soils and rocks on subaerial slopes is a subject which has been intensely studied over the past fifty years, and its literature is becoming extens- ive. The submarine phenomenon, although similar in its pbysical basis, is much less studied, but has become an important subject (particularly during the past decade) because of the increase of man’s use of the coastal en- vironment and the intensified exploration for oil and minerals on the continental margins and ocean basins.