Established in 2021 by the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference, the International Geodiversity Day occurs each October 6th and aims to raise public and policy awareness of the importance of non-living nature.

To celebrate the third edition of the International Geodiversity Day, the IAG organises a webinar entitled “Geomorphological Diversity of the 2nd 100 IUGS (International Union of Geological Sciences) Geological Heritage Sites.” It will be conducted on October 29th (Tue), 15:00-17:00 CET. You will listen to three speakers from Canada, Italy and Poland, who will illustrate the importance of the International Geodiversity Day with concrete examples.

Find the flyer here, and register on Google Forms here. If you have problems accessing the registration form, please e-mail oguchi<at>csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp. Find more information on the International Geodiversity Day here.

The winner of the IAG Video Contest for the period July-September 2024 is Martin Mergili (Austria)! Find below his video and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

The rapid recession of Gepatschferner

by Martin Mergili, Austria

Gepatschferner is located in the headwaters of Kaunertal in the province of Tyrol, Austria. It represents one of Austria’s two largest glaciers, with almost the same surface area as the more famous Pasterze. Like many glaciers in the area, also Gepatschferner is in a stage of massive recession. This time lapse video visualizes the evolution of the glacier tongue from 2020 to 2023. The video is composed of individual photos taken by an automatic camera installed in front of the glacier terminus during each summer. One photo per day is used, including only those days with good weather conditions. The operating of the automatic camera is a collaborative effort of Martin Mergili and Stefan Haselberger (Austria).

The winner of the IAG Photo Contest in September 2024 is Narangerel Serdyanjiv (Mongolia)! Find below his photo and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the context, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

Senjit Khad – Denudational process of Mountain rocks in Western Mongolia

by Narangerel Serdyanjiv, Mongolia

Senjit Khad is located on the top of a high mountain with a flat surface at an altitude of 2773 meters (a.s.l) in the Erdenehairkhan Soum, Zavkhan province in Western Mongolia. This cliff tor is 10 m high, 6-8 m wide, with a unique formation like a granite door. The massif of granite rocks is widely distributed, and formed residual rocks and cliffs as a result of physical weathering and wind erosion in this place. There are beautiful natural places and sand deposits formed by erosion and denudation processes. Local people call this cliff “Heaven’s Gate”.

The winner of the IAG Photo Contest in August 2024 is Florin Zăinescu (France)! Find below his photo and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the context, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

Where River Meets Sea: 2,000 Years Growth of a Wave-Influenced Delta Lobe

by Florin Zăinescu, France

This aerial photograph showcases the Sfântu Gheorghe wave-influenced lobe of the Danube Delta which hosts the largest reed marsh expanse in the world. Over 2,000 years, the dynamic interplay between the Danube (carrying here one-third of the river’s discharge) and the Black Sea has sculpted this deltaic lobe.
Delta formation is a delicate battle between river and sea. As Danube sediments reach the coast, they encounter northern currents, winds, and waves that push them southward (top of the image), creating an asymmetric landscape. Sands gather in the north (bottom), while silts and muds form the expansive marsh plain to the south.
Barrier spits like Sacalin (thin hook, top of image) and ridges from ancient storms and waves mark this ongoing struggle. However, human impacts, such as upstream dam construction, have drastically reduced sediment supply, accelerating coastal erosion and threatening the delta’s delicate equilibrium.

The winner of the IAG Photo Contest in May 2024 is Hanne Hendrickx (Germany)! Find below her photo and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

Thunderstorm aftermath: The August 2018 debris flow event in Arolla (Wallis, Switzerland)

by Hanne Hendrickx, Germany

In this captivating photograph, taken on August 5, 2018, a debris flow event unfolded in a picturesque alpine valley. The debris flow, triggered by an hour of intense, localized evening thunderstorms, cascaded down the mountainside, reaching the valley bottom and threatening the nearby camping ground of Arolla. The sediment originates from the La Roussette rock glacier and the La Tsa morainic bastion. Notably, the cirque to the left did not contribute to any debris flow event. Mont Collon towers in the background, overseeing the dramatic alpine landscape, its snow-capped peak partially shrouded in clouds. The main river, Borgne, winds through the valley, its bed visibly saturated with sediment. On the right, one can observe the location where the Tsjijiore Nouve glacier once extended its tongue, now a silent testament to the valley’s glacial history. This image beautifully captures the dynamic landscape of this alpine region.

The winner of the IAG Video Contest for the period April-June 2024 is Yuichi Hayakawa (Japan)! Find below his video and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

Shichimenzan Kuzure landslide

by Yuichi Hayakawa, Japan

Located in the sub-basin of the Fuji River watershed in the Southern Japanese Alps, the large landslide “Shichimenzan Kuzure” covers an area of 3.5 hectares and continues to supply a huge amount of sediment into the rivers every year. It is not clear when exactly this landslide was formed, but according to the historical documents of the Shichimenzan Keishinin Temple, it seems to have already existed at least as early as the 1600s. The Southern Japanese Alps are one of the fastest uplifting areas in Japan, with entire mountains rising more than 4 meters every 1,000 years. At the same time, it is one of the areas with the highest erosion rates in Japan. In the long term, although seemingly unchanging, the mountain landscapes are constantly evolving, and the Mt. Shichimenzan landslide is a visible manifestation of such “movement” of the mountains.

The IAG is delighted to announce its 11th International Conference on Geomorphology! It will take place in Christchurch, New Zealand (Ōtautahi, Aotearoa) on 2-6 February 2026!

The Conference will include scientific sessions, workshops and field trips. All details are available on the web page of the event: http://www.geomorph.org/11th-iag-international-conference-on-geomorphology-2-6-february-2026-christchurch-new-zealand/.

You can also visit the website of the event: https://www.confer.co.nz/icg2026/call-for-abstracts/
and express your interest by subscribing to the mailing list: https://confer.eventsair.com/icg2026/eoi/Site/Register.

All key dates for the event can be found below – or in pdf here.

The winner of the IAG Photo Contest in April 2024 is Jérémiah Clément (France)! Find below his photo and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

Anthropic modification of a coastal landscape in response to the global warming threat

by Jérémiah Clément, France

The beach of Gouville-sur-Mer has been recently affected by an important erosion, enhanced by rising sea level (as many other coastal areas in the world). In order to protect the village’s camping site, « big bags » made of plastic geotextile and filled with sand have been placed precipitately in front of the dune crest. The purpose was to try to slow down its erosion. Unfortunately, the site was later affected by several strong storms, ripping the bags appart. The foreshore is now a mix of sand and plastic waste, and the dune crest is still receding during high tides. This site illustrate how poorly designed shoreline protection can lead to disastrous consequences.

The winner of the IAG Video Contest for the period January-March 2024 is Raúl Pérez López (Spain)! Find below his video and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

A volcanic bomb field

by Raúl Pérez López, Spain

During the 2021 eruption in La Palma (Canary Islands), vigorous strombolian activity unleashed volcanic bombs around the cinder cone. The impact craters on the tephra deposits bear witness to the sheer force, yet amid this chaos, a mesmerizing pattern emerges. As the strombolian jets soared to heights of 300 meters, bombs of spatter and basalt were hurled into the air, creating a dense field surrounding the cone’s crater.
Regrettably, these ephemeral volcanic formations have since succumbed to natural erosion, with the once prominent bomb field now obscured beneath layers of subsequent tephra deposits. Scientists have intervened to remove larger projectiles, while those that remained were gradually buried under layers of ash and lapilli, their shapes reshaped by relentless winds and heavy rains. Fortunately, we are left with footage capturing the spectacle.

For this month only, we have two winners for the IAG Photo Contest in March 2024! They are Stefan Winkler (Germany) and Jana Eichel (The Netherlands)! Find below their photos and descriptive texts.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

Tasman Glacier – a regional symbol for current glacier retreat

by Stefan Winkler, Germany

Tasman Glacier is the largest glacier in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, located immediately east of the Main Divide below the summit of Aoraki/Mt.Cook prominently towering in the centre of the image. The glacier is characterised by its lower tongue almost completely covered by supraglacial debris. This is typical for valley glaciers in the Southern Alps and the result of frequent denudational and gravitational processes triggered, for example, by seismic or major storm events. After several decades of mainly vertical downwasting during the middle of the 20th century, an initially supraglacial lake started to enlarge during the late 1990s causing the terminus of Tasman Glacier to retreat rapidly. This retreat by calving partly needs to be interpreted as ‘delayed’ response caused by the isolating effect of the supraglacial debris and not only the current climatic conditions. The huge and steep lateral moraines are exposed to strong paraglacial overprinting.

A glimpse into a glacial landscape of the future

by Jana Eichel, The Netherlands

Over the past two decades, Turtmann glacier (Valais, Switzerland), has been strongly retreating, revealing a glimpse into a glacial landscape of the future. A few years ago, large parts of the steep shaly bedrock in the picture were still covered by glacial ice. Now, glacial meltwater cascades down it on its way to the floodplain. On hot summer days, remaining glacier ice of the former icefall is breaking loose and can be heard crashing down the slope. Strong gullying processes dissect the steep lateral moraine during on-going paraglacial adjustment. At the gentler distal slope, however, plants are starting to colonize. Typical “greening” is substituted here by yellow coloring from prevalent Anthyllis spp. flowers. Small larch trees (Larix decidua) start to appear, further stabilizing this formerly eroding slope and turning it into a biodiverse alpine ecosystem.

The winner of the IAG Photo Contest in February 2024 is Stéphane Jaillet (France)! Find below his photo and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

Rock comets from the Patagonian karsts

by Stéphane Jaillet, France

On the western side of Chilean Patagonia (50°S), the lapiazed surfaces of the karsts of Madre de Dios Island are subject to intense dissolution. The abundance of precipitation (8,000 mm / year) favours the highest dissolution rate in the world. Since the glaciers retreated, erratic blocks have remained on the ground. They protect the underlying limestone from dissolution and wind. Behind the boulders, a ridge has been preserved. We have named these amazing forms the rock comets of limestone Patagonia.

The winner of the IAG Photo Contest in January 2024 is Roos van Wees (Belgium)! Find below her photo and descriptive text.

If you want to participate in the contest, find the rules, guidelines and details on the procedure here.

The reflection of Taranaki
by Roos van Wees, Belgium

The Taranaki volcano, also known as Mount Taranaki or Egmont lies on the northern island of New Zealand. It is an active stratovolcano with a perfectly symmetrical cone. The area around the volcano is protected in a National Park attracting many hiking tourists. It forms a volcano chain with the neighbouring and older Pouakai and Kaitake volcanoes, which is visible from satellite images. This chain is a unique example of how the age of a volcano is reflected in the maturity of the geomorphology of the volcanic landscapes, with Taranaki as the young and pristine example. Its unique topography and diverse ecosystems provide insights into geological history and ecological adaptations. Taranaki is sacred to the Mãori in New Zealand featuring prominently in their myths and legends, serving as a symbol of both natural wonder and cultural identity, fostering a deep connection between science and heritage.

The IAG launches a Photo & Video contest! Each month (for photos) and every three months (for videos), the geomorphology community will be able to submit their best photo/video related to a given theme. A Selection Committee will designate a winner at each iteration, and two Overall Winners per year – who will be granted reduced registration fees to attend one IAG conference!

Visit the Contest page to get all details: http://www.geomorph.org/iag-photo-video-contest/

Established in 2021 by the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference, the International Geodiversity Day occurs each October 6th, and aims at raising awareness of public and policy on the importance of non-living nature.

To celebrate the second edition of the International Geodiversity Day, the IAG organises a webinar entitled ‘Geomorphological Diversity of the IUGS (International Union of Geological Sciences) Geological Heritage Sites‘! It will be conducted on October 16th, 15:00-16:40 CET. You will listen to 3 speakers from various countries worldwide, who will illustrate the importance of the International Geodiversity Day with concrete examples.

Find the flyer here, and register on Eventbrite here. Find more information on the International Geodiversity Day here.