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This volume brings together a sampling of research addressing issues of continental intraplate earthquakes, including a core of papers from special sessions held at the spring 2004 Joint Assembly of the American and Canadian Geophysical Unions in Montreal. Papers address the broad related topics of the science, hazard, and policy issues of large continental intraplate earthquakes in a worldwide context. One group of papers addresses aspects of the primary scientific issue—where are these earthquakes and what causes them? Answering this question is crucial to determining whether they will continue there or migrate elsewhere. A second group of papers addresses the challenge of assessing the hazard posed by intraplate earthquakes. Although it may be a very long time before the scientific issues are resolved, the progress being made is helping attempts to estimate the probability, size, and shaking of future earthquakes, and the uncertainty of the results. A third group of papers explores the question of how society should mitigate the possible effects of future large continental intraplate earthquakes. Communities around the world face the challenge of deciding how to address this rare, but real, hazard, given the wide range of other societal needs. Continental intraplate earthquakes will remain a challenge to seismologists, earthquake engineers, policy makers, and the public for years to come, but significant progress toward understanding and addressing this challenge is now being made.