Patterns of seismicity, in situ stress measurements, and numerical modelling show that stresses related to plate boundaries are manifested in continents over distances up to thousands of km away from the margins. Estimates of the magnitude of such stresses and their variation with distance are subject to great uncertainty, and their capacity to effect deformation is also questionable. Yet the response of the continents to applied stresses is critical to seismic hazard analysis, mining, hydrocarbon production, hydrology, landscape evolution, and engineering. We encourage contributions that describe and examine the response of the continents to applied stress, using any approach. Methods could include recent earthquake and paleoseismic studies, in situ and paleostress determinations, modelling, and structural analysis of past orogenic belts and their relation to adjacent continents, amoung others.