Exposure dating of boulder and bedrock surfaces with 10 Be, 21 Ne, 26 Al, and 36 Cl allows us to constrain periods of glacier expansion in the European Alps. The age of 155 ka from a boulder of Alpine lithology located in the Jura Mountains (Switzerland) provides a minimum age for pre-LGM (Last Glacial Maximum), more extensive Alpine glaciations. During the LGM, glaciers expanded onto the foreland after 30 ka. By 21.1 ± 0.9 ka deglaciation had begun, and the Rhône Glacier abandoned the outer moraines. The age of 15.4 ± 1.4 ka provides a minimum age for formation of Gschnitz stadial moraines (Austria). They mark the first clear post-LGM readvance of mountain glaciers, when glacier termini were already situated well inside the mountains. Glacier advance at the onset of the Younger Dryas led to formation of Egesen I moraines, dated to 12.2 ± 1.0 ka at the Schönferwall site (Austria) and to 12.3 ± 1.5 ka at the outer moraine at Julier Pass (Switzerland). The age of 11.3 ± 0.9 ka for the inner moraine / rock glacier complex at Julier Pass corroborates the field evidence, which points to a marked increase in rock glacier activity and delayed moraine stabilization during the late Younger Dryas. An early Preboreal glacier advance, larger than the Little Ice Age advance(s) at 10.8 ± 1.0 ka, was recorded at Kartell cirque (Austria). A moraine doublet located a few hundred meters outside the A.D. 1850 moraines in Kromer Valley (Austria) was dated at 8.4 ± 0.7 ka. At least during termination 1, glacier volumes in the Alps varied in tune with climate oscillations, Heinrich event 1, the Younger Dryas cold phase, the Preboreal oscillation, and the 8.2 ka event.

The Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau were formed as a result of the collision of India and Asia, and provide an excellent opportunity to study the mechanical response of the continental lithosphere to tectonic stress. Geophysicists are divided in their views on the nature of this response, advocating either (1) homogeneously distributed deformation with the lithosphere deforming as a fluid continuum or (2) highly localized deformation with the lithosphere deforming as a system of blocks. The resolution of this issue has broad implications for understanding the tectonic response of continental lithosphere in general. Homogeneous deformation is supported by relatively low decadal, geodetic slip-rate estimates for the Altyn Tagh and Karakorum faults. Localized deformation is supported by high millennial, geomorphic slip rates constrained by both cosmogenic and radiocarbon dating on these faults. Based upon the agreement of rates determined by radiocarbon and cosmogenic dating, the overall linearity of offset versus age correlations, and the plateau-wide correlation of landscape evolution and climate history, the disparity between geomorphic and geodetic slip-rate determinations is unlikely to be due to the effects of surface erosion on the cosmogenic age determinations. Similarly, based upon the consistency of slip rates over various observation intervals, secular variations in slip rate appear to persist no longer than 2000 yr and are unlikely to provide reconciliation. Conversely, geodetic and geomorphic slip-rate estimates on the Kunlun fault, which does not have significant splays or associated thrust faults, are in good agreement, indicating that there is no fundamental reason why these complementary geodetic and geomorphic methods should disagree. Similarly, the geodetic and geomorphic estimates of shortening rates across the northeastern edge of the plateau are in reasonable agreement, and the geomorphic rates on individual thrust faults demonstrate a significant eastward decrease in the shortening rate. This rate decrease is consistent with the transfer of slip from the Altyn Tagh fault to genetically related thrust mountain building at its terminus. Rates on the Altyn Tagh fault suggest a similar decrease in rate, but the current data set is too small to be definitive. Overall, the high, late Pleistocene–Holocene geomorphic slip velocities on the major strike-slip faults of Tibet suggest that these faults absorb as much of India's convergence relative to Siberia as the Himalayan Main Frontal Thrust on the southern edge of the plateau.