Abstract Three case studies are used to exemplify the wide variety of controlling factors that combine to influence the development of modern turbidite systems, and how these vary with location and time. For example, Cascadia Basin in the Pacific Ocean off western North America, which is underlain by the Cascadia Subduction Zone, exhibits the dominant tectonic control of earthquake triggering for turbidity currents, the increased sediment-supply effects of the Mt. Mazama catastrophic volcanic eruption in 7626 yr B.P., the glacial climatic and sea-level lowstand control on rapid turbidite–system growth rates, and the recent anthropogenic control that reduces sediment supply rates. Lake Baikal in Russia shows how the rift-basin tectonic setting controls the number and type of sediment input points, the amount of sediment supply, and the consequent types of turbidite systems developed along different margins of the Baikal basin. Pleistocene glacial climatic changes, without changes in lake base level, causes increased sediment input and the rapid growth rate of Baikal turbidite systems that is three to five times greater than that during the Holocene interglacial climate. The Ebro turbidite systems in the northwest Mediterranean Sea exhibit control of system types by the Messinian salinity-crisis lowstand, of channel locations by oceanographic current patterns, and of sediment-supply increase by glacial climatic changes as well as recent decrease by anthropogenic changes. Both active-margin and passive-margin settings have some common controls such as climatic and sea-level changes, and develop similar types of turbidite systems such as base-of-slope aprons, submarine fans, and deep-sea or axial channels. Each margin also has specific local controlling factors, for example the volcanic events in Cascadia Basin, glacial climatic without erosional base-level control in Lake Baikal, and the Messinian extreme lowstand in the Mediterranean Sea. Comparison of modern turbidite systems points out new insights on external controls such as importance of: (1) earthquakes for triggering turbidity currents on active tectonic margins, (2) equal or greater Pleistocene climatic control compared to lowered base level for sediment supply, (3) direct glacial sediment input that results in doubled proximal channel size, (4) greatly reduced deposition rates in drained compared to ponded turbidite basins, (5) importance of ocean currents on location of turbidite systems and channel development, and (6) anthropogenic effects from river damming during the last century that sometimes reduces present sediment supply to turbidite systems by orders of magnitude. External Controls on Deep-Water Depositional Systems SEPM Special Publication No. 92 (CD version), Copyright © 2009 SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology), ISBN 978-1-56576-200-8, p. 57–76.

Abstract This excursion gives an introduction to the geoscience education region of north-eastern Bavaria. Thanks to its rich mining history, the geological variability and the long record of geological research in the area itself and its eastward continuation into Bohemia, northeastern Bavaria is a prime destination for geoscience education of non-geologists. Ordinary people experience to what extent their living environment is related to geology. Geoscientific knowledge is a major requirement for future sustainable development, but it is currently underrepresented in society. The geological outreach center at the continental deep drilling site is based on the famous Continental Deep Drilling Program (KTB) that probed the deeper crust of the Earth between 1987 and 1994. The outreach center communicates modern geoscience research results from the perspective of a dynamic Earth, which directly affects everybody’s life. Centrally positioned in a geologically unique area, it highlights the geological significance of the entire region. It is an almost natural development that such a region qualified to become the Czech-Bavarian Geopark. Its key topics are geodynamic and morphodynamic processes, human activity as a factor of landform development, geology as a fundamental base of economic and cultural development, the geological center of Europe, and the development from neptunism to the System Planet Earth. Geological outreach of the geopark obviously combines with social and cultural aspects. The geopark aims to emphasize the specific regional features in order to improve the public understanding of geological objects and their meaning in nature, and it provides an opportunity for the identification of the population with their regional living environment. Last but not least, geoscience outreach in the area is widely recognized as providing a significant benefit to the tourism industry.