The project EGLACOM (Evolution of a GLacial Arctic COntinental Margin: the southern Svalbard ice stream-dominated sedimentary system) belongs to the IPY Activity No. 367 (Neogene ice streams and sedimentary processes on high-latitude continental margins - NICE STREAMS). The EGLACOM cruise of the R/V OGS-Explora, funded by the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica (OGS), is scheduled to take place between mid-July and mid-August 2008. The EGLACOM acquisition plan takes into account data acquired for the companion Spanish project SVAIS during the cruise of the BIO Hesperides in August 2007, in particular single channel seismic reflection data acquired during that cruise by OGS with its portable system. The main objective of EGLACOM is the geophysical study of an ice stream-dominated marine depositional system (the Storfjiorden Fan) on an Arctic margin, in order to reconstruct its evolution from the Pliocene to the last deglaciation, and to investigate the sedimentary architecture and seafloor morphology as it changed through time since the onset of glacial conditions. The study area spans from the outer continental shelf to the lower continental slope. This study will be conducted through the analysis of the seismic stratigraphic units, their facies, and their relation to the glacial evolution on the basis of new, high-resolution multichannel seismic data that also allow a tie to the stratigraphic units encountered at drillsites ODP 986 and DSDP 334. The shallow acoustic stratigraphy, with emphasis on acoustic facies of deposits post-dating the last glacial maximum, will be defined using three superposed levels of resolution: CHIRP, single channel and multichannel seismic profiles. The morphology, acoustic character and volumes of slope failures will be also investigated, with attention to the mouths of glacial troughs formerly occupied by ice streams flowing to the shelf edge. Detailed swath bathymetry will be used to characterize the seabed morphology of the trough from the outer shelf to the deeper part of the Storfjiorden trough-mouth fan depositional system. Ancillary objectives are: 1) the acoustic study of the acoustic layers in the water column along the seismic profiles; this geophysical study of water masses will be calibrated with XBT, CTD, ADCP, thermosalinometer and water sample data; 2) a search for seabed and subsurface gas/fluid escape features, including bottom simulating reflectors that may indicate the presence of gas hydrates.