During the last decade significant advances in our understanding of the development of polar continental margins during the Cenozoic have been made. These include more detailed reconstructions of the climatic, oceanographic, and tectonic evolution of high northern and southern latitudes over various time scales, as well as reconstructions of past ice-sheet dynamics and studies of marine geohazards. Results have been obtained from conventional 2D and high-resolution 2D and 3D seismic surveying, as well as from short sediment cores and longer drill cores (e.g. IODP, MeBo).

Fjords are regarded as “small oceans” that incise high latitude coastlines and link continental margins with the interiors of landmasses. Fjord settings allow us to study a variety of geological processes similar to those that have occurred on glaciated continental margins, but typically at smaller scales. The contribution of several sediment sources (e.g. glacial, fluvioglacial, fluvial, biological) to fjord basins along with relatively high sedimentation rates also provides the potential for high-resolution palaeoclimatic and palaeooceanographic records on decadal to centennial timescales.

The aim of this multi-disciplinary session is to follow on from the success of previous years by bringing together researchers working on northern and southern high-latitude continental margins and fjords, investigating the dynamics of past ice sheets, climate, tectonics, sedimentary processes, physical oceanography, and palaeo-biology/ecology.