New insights on slope instabilities from recent studies within the French Margin Program ' GDR Marges '

摘要

Gravity instabilities along continental margins and oceanic basins have become a fundamental issue in terms of both scientific concepts (e.g., triggering mechanisms) and natural hazards (e.g., damages to deep-water infrastructures, tsunamis and their impact on human population). Better understanding of the parameters triggering such events, capable of mobilizing up to several hundreds of cubic kilometers of sediments, represents an important scientific challenge because these events have, or have had, a direct influence on the morphology and evolution of margins and oceans. Such understanding also may help determine the coastal regions where the potential risk for the population is highest.