The Polar Regions attract increased attention and have special significance as regions strained the most by the consequences of climate change. The unanswered questions over the regions’ tectonic evolution, the implications of their natural resources and the United Nations’ Law of the Sea Treaty stimulate further interest in them. Both the Arctic and Antarctica have been recently central in several international research frameworks, which also include strong geophysical components. Some of the seismological challenges in the Polar Regions are the origin and properties of intraplate seismicity, the mechanisms of ultra-slow sea-floor spreading, the role of glacial rebound in seismicity triggering and the exploration for oil and gas. Moreover, seismology is gaining momentum as an effective tool in the study of glacier and ice-sheet dynamics in the polar and mountain environment. Diverse seismic signals originating in the cryosphere are being detected, their sources including glaciers and ice streams, ice shelves and icebergs. The mechanisms behind these seismic events vary, involving phenomena such as crevassing, calving and surging.

We invite submissions to the session on seismology and Earth structure in the Arctic and Antarctica, as well as in glaciated environments in temperate climates. All seismological topics are welcome, including monitoring and analysis of seismicity (tectonic and cryogenic), studies of recent larger seismic events and seismotectonics, and seismic imaging of crustal and mantle structure. We welcome contributions both on recent research results and their interpretation and on experiments under the special conditions of the polar environment and mountain glaciers.