Glacial deposits are present at the head of the Ürümqi River valley, Tianshan, Central Asia. 10Be surface exposure ages of 15 boulders from three sites along a 12 km valley transect range from 9 to 21 ka suggesting emplacement by glacial retreat and advance commencing at the global last glacial maximum (LGM) and most likely abating in the early Holocene. Although the age spread for a given locality is not small, perhaps indicating post-depositional reworking, maximum ages per site are either coeval with or are post-LGM and inconsistent with previous pre-LGM electron spin resonance ages.

At Lago Buenos Aires, Argentina, 10Be, 26Al, and 40Ar/39Ar ages range from 190,000 to 109,000 yr for two moraines deposited prior to the last glaciation, 23,000�16,000 yr ago. Two approaches, maximum boulder ages assuming no erosion, and the average age of all boulders and an erosion rate of 1.4 mm/103 yr, both yield a common estimate age of 150,000�140,000 yr for the two moraines. The erosion rate estimate derives from 10Be and 26Al concentrations in old erratics, deposited on moraines that are >760,000 yr old on the basis of interbedded 40Ar/39Ar dated lavas. The new cosmogenic ages indicate that a major glaciation during marine oxygen isotope stage 6 occurred in the mid-latitude Andes. The next five youngest moraines correspond to stage 2. There is no preserved record of a glacial advance during stage 4. The distribution of dated boulders and their ages suggest that at least one major glaciation occurred between 760,000 and >200,000 yr ago. The mid-latitude Patagonian glacial record, which is well preserved because of low erosion rates, indicates that during the last two glacial cycles major glaciations in the southern Andes have been in phase with growth and decay of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, especially at the 100,000 yr periodicity. Thus, glacial maxima are global in nature and are ultimately paced by small changes in Northern Hemisphere insolation.

Present study provides a review of the latest results on fluvial and aeolian landscape evolution in Hungary achieved by our team during the last 20 years.

– The Hungarian river terrace system and its chronology was described with special emphasise on the novel threshold concept. A revised terrace system was created by the compilation of novel terrace chronology and MIS data. Evolution of river terraces was not only governed by climatic factors but tectonic ones too. Incision rate of the Danube, and uplift rate of the Transdanubian Range (TR) was around 0.1-0.3 mm/a in the marginal zones of the TR (mostly based on the published U-series data) and was above 1 mm/a in its axial zone (based on 3He exposure age dating of strath terraces).

– According to a detailed geomorphological investigation of the different channel-planform morphologies in the Middle Tisza region and Sajó-Hernád alluvial fan, six phases of river pattern change and four incision periods were detected during the last 20,000 years.

– Wind polished rock surfaces dated by in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be suggest that deflation was active in Hungary as early as 1.5 Ma ago. According to these exposure age data, Pleistocene denudation rate of the study area (Balaton Highland) was 40-80 m/Ma.

– In sand covered areas the alternations of wind-blown layers and buried fossil soils provide information about climate and environment changes. In this study, periods of sand movement were mostly determined by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating methods and five aeolian sand accumulation periods were recognised during the last 25 000 years.

– A new loess stratigraphical view was elaborated using the most recent dating methods (luminescence, AAR). The lower part of Mende Upper (MF1-2) pedokomplex is suggested to represent the last interglacial period (MIS 5e). During the last interglacial/glacial period (MIS 5 - MIS 2) several soil-forming periods existed but the preservation of these paleosoils is variable depending on their paleogeomorphological position.

Cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements from bedrock exposures in East Antarctica provide indications of how long the rock surface has been free from glacial cover. Samples from the crests of Zakharoff Ridge and Mount Harding, two typical nunataks in the Grove Mountains, show minimum 10Be ages of 2.00 ± 0.22 and 2.30 ± 0.26 Ma, respectively. These ages suggest that the crests were above the ice sheet at least since the Plio–Pleistocene boundary. Adopting a ‘reasonable’ erosion rate of 5–10 cm Ma-1 increases the exposure ages of these two samples to extend into the mid-Pliocene. The bedrock exposure ages steadily decrease with decreasing elevation on the two nunataks, which indicates ~200 m decrease of the ice sheet in the Grove Mountains since mid-Pliocene time. Seven higher elevation samples exhibit a simple exposure history, which indicates that the ice sheet in the Grove Mountains decreased only ~100 m over a period as long as 1–2 Ma. This suggests that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) was relatively stable during the Pliocene warm interval. Five lower elevation samples suggest a complex exposure history, and indicate that the maximum subsequent increase of the EAIS was only 100 m higher than the present ice surface. Considering the uncertainties, their total initial exposure and subsequent burial time could be later than mid-Pliocene, which may not conflict with the stable mid-Pliocene scenario.