Submarine landslides are one of the important geo-hazard topics in next phase of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (new IODP). Submarine landslide studies are being propelled strongly by two International Geological Correlation Programmes (IGCP-511; 2005-2009 and IGCP-585; 2010-2014). Furthermore, an international symposium related to IGCP-585 will be held in Kyoto from 24-26 October, 2011 (see http://landslide.jp). The main objective of this session is to bring a world-wide perspective of submarine mass movements and their consequences by assembling state-of-the-art contributions from international researchers of academic institutions and the offshore industry, and to stimulate the research. This session provides full coverage of the scientific and engineering aspects of this type of marine and coastal geo-hazards.