The Euro-Mediterranean Submarine landSlide database (EMSS21)

The Euro-Mediterranean Submarine landSlide database (EMSS21) is a catalogue of submarine landslides of the Mediterranean Sea and the European continental margins of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The catalogue is compiled from data available in the literature as well as information collected from geophysical data and not published in the scientific literature. The data set includes polygons and polylines for the landslide deposits and landslide scars as well as information relative to age, volume, area, runout, thickness, typology, scar elevation, geological setting, depth, slope, inferred trigger mechanism, relationship to fluid flow features as well as the relevant metadata. The catalogue includes submarine landslides that span the Miocene to Present day. Nevertheless a clear bias exist towards submarine landslides of younger age, particularly for the smaller events, as these events are difficult to map/identify on lower resolution geophysical data sets typically collected in deep-water and large sub-surface depths. The catalogue aims to offer improved understanding of mass-wasting processes, the potentially resulting tsunamis and derived geohazard. The EMSS21 displays information collected from both the literature and geophysical records. Data from the literature is collected from georeferenced map figures, from which the outline of the landslide deposit and the landslide scar have been digitized. Most information such as age, volume, typology, inferred trigger mechanism and relationship to fluid flow features and metadata is extracted from the relevant article. Area of the deposit and landslide runout is determined from the digitized polygons and polylines, volume (if not available) is determined from area and mean thickness. If the latter is not available, the volume is determined from the Area-Volume relationship for landslides where volume has already been determined. When the data originates directly from geophysical records the outline and scars have been determined from geomorphological interpretation of swath bathymetric maps and interpretation of submarine landslides on a variety of seismic records. In such instances, age information originates from a variety of methods presenting a wide range of accuracies, from radiometric dating to well-seismic correlation as well as ages inferred from mean sedimentation rates. In many instances, landslides identified in the literature are dated with an age epoch only.