Introduction
The research vision of the UNIS Arctic Geology Department focuses on Svalbard, its fjords and adjacent shelf that together offer an excellent opportunity to study a wide range of landforms, processes, sediments and structures related to the development of the Barents Shelf and infill of sedimentary basins.

As an area of terrestrial outcrop on the Barents Shelf, Svalbard provides excellent access to a vast range of basin settings, from the low-latitude infill of the Devonian basins, to the present glacial and periglacial erosion and infill of valleys and fjords.

The UNIS Arctic Geology Department performs research within six subjects in Earth Science:

• Marine geology
• Quaternary geology
• Permafrost and periglacial geomorphology
• Glaciology
• Sedimentology
• Structural geology

The stratigrapy at Svalbard stores long-term records of environmental changes. Its geological history spans >380 million years, that comprises a fairly continuous succession of Precambrian metamorphic rocks, to Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, as well as Tertiary to Quaternary strata.

Svalbard exhibits exceptionally well-exposed, large sections. On the slopes of glacially eroded fjords and valleys there occur up to 1000 m high and several km long and continuous sections. These facilitate studies of geological evolution of large-scale structural elements and tectonic controls, fold-and-thrust belt developments, basin analysis and sequence stratigraphy, hydrocarbon formation and changes in the sedimentary environment through time.

The Quaternary strata, both offshore and with numerous inshore sites exposing interglacial-glacial marine and glacial sediments, offers opportunities to study the Late Quaternary development of climate and glaciation. The geological archives store information on past glacial and climatic oscillations and related sea-level changes.

Svalbard, with its extensive (>60%) glacial cover, is a natural laboratory for studying present-day glacial processes, permafrost, periglacial processes and linkages between climate, glaciers and geomorphic/ geological processes. Studies of the glacial and periglacial land system on Svalbard, associated processes, dynamics and products, provide modern analogues to glacial environments during past glaciations at lower latitudes.

The Svalbard natural climatic- and glacial system, is sensitive to environmental changes. Svalbard’s geographical location, at the northernmost end of the North Atlantic Drift, makes it extremely sensitive to regional North Atlantic climate changes. One incitement for studying environmental changes on Svalbard, past and present, is that comprehension of its environmental history is necessary for understanding present and future trends.