Abstract Characterized by an active margin to the west, passive margins to the east and north, and numerous fjords and estuaries, the seafloor of Canada is prone to subaqueous landslides. The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) facilitates government response in times of crisis by providing timely and concise information to Canadians, and informs the strategies to address natural hazards. Thus, the GSC is conducting a national assessment of the subaqueous landslide hazard. This paper reviews dozens of major subaqueous mass movement deposits with an emphasis on recent publications and summarizes the attempt to produce a national database. The types range from ephemeral turbidity current deposits to very large deposits (>100 km 3 ). To date, 1266 deposits are identified with many more expected as mapping progresses. This work is important as it will feed into the larger national tsunami strategy, and is a step forward for the national government to manage the risk. Canada is among the first countries to enter its entire database using the consistent morphometric characterization recommended by members of the UNESCO IGCP-640 (S4SLIDE) Community.

Abstract The largest UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK is found in Cornwall and west Devon, and its designation is based specifically on its heritage for metalliferous mining, especially tin, copper and arsenic. With a history of over 2000 years of mining, SW England is exceptional in the nature and extent of its mining landscape. The mining for metallic ores, and more recently for kaolin, is a function of the distinctive geology of the region. The mining hazards that are encountered in areas of metallic mines are a function of: the Paleozoic rocks; the predominant steeply dipping nature of mineral veins and consequent shaft mining; the great depth and complexity of some of the mines; the waste derived from processing metallic ores; the long history of exploitation; and the contamination associated with various by-products of primary ore-processing, refining and smelting, notably arsenic. The hazards associated with kaolin mining are mainly related to the volume of the inert waste products and the need to maintain stable spoil tips, and the depth of the various tailings’ ponds and pits. The extent of mining in Cornwall and Devon has resulted in the counties being leaders in mining heritage preservation and the treatment and remediation of mining-related hazards.

There was a new focus on “processes” within sedimentary geology from the 1960s. It was initially driven by alluvial-channel and flow-regime experiments, but led to the concept of facies succession for all depositional environments and eventually, on the larger scale, to a new stratigraphy in which base-level change was the key ingredient. Systematic study of modern environments led to a marked improvement in our knowledge of alluvial to deepwater sedimentary systems and how they are linked. New access to seismic data, especially on shelf margins and deep marine environments, was critical for further great changes in our understanding of marine processes and basin-scale products. Integration of new knowledge on rates and time scales in tectonics, climate dynamics, and sea-level change has been important for gleaning the signals of these drivers from the accumulated sedimentary successions. Current research, not least from geomorphic and stratigraphic experiments, is suggesting that autogenic responses in stratigraphy are more common and occur on longer time scales than formerly thought and will cause a rethink in sequence stratigraphy. The past half-century of work in siliciclastic petrology has benefited from a broad consensus on classifications for sandstones and limestones that provided clarity on the roles of detrital and diagenetic components in compositional heterogeneity. Subsequent advances in provenance and diagenetic studies have both been driven by the availability of microanalytical tools for imaging and analysis of elements and isotopes. A petrographically based appreciation of the role of pervasive non-equilibrium and chemical kinetics underpins our current capabilities to make predictions of siliciclastic rock properties in the subsurface, creating a strong link between siliciclastic petrology and the global petroleum industry. Community consensus has yet to converge on classification for fine-grained siliciclastic rocks (shales, mudrocks, mudstones), but the compelling need for prediction of rock properties in unconventional reservoirs is presently driving much research into the causes of heterogeneity in this great class of sedimentary materials.