On 9 October 1963, trees and rocks were falling into the reservoir behind the Vajont dam in the Italian Alps at the location where a landslide was predicted. A massive landslide of about 250 million m^2 of earth, rock and trees fell later that day into the reservoir. This caused the displacement of 50 million m^2 of water which overtopped the dam. The flash flood in the Piave valley destroyed the villages of Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Faè, killing around 2'000 people. The dam itself was largely undamaged. On 8-10 October the Vajont 2013 conference was organised to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the catastrophic landslide and to discuss advances in engineering geology of giant landslides.