It is only in the past decade that both vertical and horizontal crustal movements are finally accounted for when building models to understand the geodynamic evolution of our planet, and ground-breaking studies attempt to explain now how mantle and plate tectonics concurred to modify Earth’s crust. However, this approach has not yet been applied to the Arctic realm, mainly because of the poor understanding of this remote region. At the same time, the evolution of the Arctic region is, in many aspects, the result of tectonic events and changes in the neighboring regions, in particular the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans.
Several episodes of subduction in the North Pacific, NE Asia and in the Arctic area itself from Jurassic-Cetaceous times onward generated slab graveyards that are now imaged by improved tomographic models. Moreover, pervasive volcanism in the High Arctic (the so-called HALIP: High Arctic LIP), with ages ranging from 150 to 60 Ma with possible late thermal overprinting seems to have preceded or occurred around times of regional tectonic reorganizations but a causal relationship has yet not been elucidated.

This session provides a forum for discussions of a variety of problems linked to the Circum-Arctic geodynamics and aims to bring together a diversity of sub-disciplines including plate tectonic, mantle tomography, geodynamic modelling, igneous and structural geology, geophysical imaging, paleomagnetism, sedimentology, etc.
Particularly encouraged are papers to address lithospheric-mantle interactions in the North Atlantic, Arctic and North Pacific regions, mantle dynamics and vertical and horizontal motion of various crustal blocks.

INVITED CONTRIBUTORS
Mitch Mihalynuk and Karin Sigloch
Geological Survey BC, Canada and University of Munich, Germany

Vera Schlindwein
Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany