Increasing evidence underlines the importance of the sub-Antarctic region in understanding interactions between Southern Hemisphere climate and ice sheet stability, glacier changes in response to climatic warming, the relative timing and drivers of environmental change between Antarctica and the mid-latitudes, and the pacing of climate changes between the hemispheres. Lying just south of the Polar Frontal Zone, sub-Antarctic South Georgia is ideally located for investigating each of these major problems, but studies of past change have lacked co-ordinated effort or wider scientific communication. This session attempts to bring together scientists working on glacial, oceanographic, geological and climatic records from South Georgia, the surrounding Southern Ocean, and other sub-Antarctic islands, to exchange results and to establish a network for future collaborative research. We welcome contributions dealing with investigations of terrestrial, lake and marine archives, ancient or recent ice-sheet/glacier fluctuations, submarine and land-based geomorphology, past oceanography, or any other aspect of geological evolution in the sub-Antarctic region.