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Pleistocene moraine complexes with glacial deposits well beyond the last glacial maximum (LGM) limit are rarely formed and preserved in the face of small valley glaciers due to topographic, tectonic, and glacier-size-specific factors. Here, we show the results of detailed mapping of the Pleistocene terminal moraines in the Bialka Valley (High Tatra Mountains, Western Carpathians) formed by a 13 km long valley glacier. To portray post-depositional denudation process in the moraines, we mapped the size distribution of moraine boulders and measured their weathering index using the Schmidt Hammer test. In the moraine complex, three morphological units were distinguished from the younger (inner) to the oldest (outermost): Łysa Polana (ŁP), Rusinowa Polana (RP), and Hurkotne (H). The ŁP unit (LGM) features hummocky moraine relief which does not occur on the two older units. In contrast, surface boulders occur on the ŁP and RP units, but they have been cleared from the oldest H unit due to long-lasting erosion. Consequently, the most weathered boulders occurred in the intermediate age RP moraine (~MIS 6). Our results show that in Central Europe, the persistence of surface granite boulders in the landscape cannot be much longer than that of the penultimate glaciation, which highlights the problem of exposure age dating of old moraines in this area. Both pre-LGM glaciations extended ca. 1 km beyond the LGM moraines, but in the case of the H glaciation, this length reduction (7%) was accompanied by a 220 m valley incision at the glacier front. Therefore, the Bialka valley glacier was able to achieve a self-limiting effect even in an area of considerable tectonic uplift. We suggest that vigorous, wet-based glacier erosion occurred in areas with high rates of ice accumulation and mass turnover in the windward NW part of the High Tatras exposed to orographic induced precipitation.

The Chornohora and Svydovets massifs represent the highest part of the Ukrainian Carpathians (2061 m a.s.l.) and the north-eastmost mountain area in Europe, which was subject to mountain glaciation during the Quaternary. This region represents one of the least explored areas in terms of glacial geomorphology in Europe, which is crucial for validating the inferred zonal/meridional mode of atmospheric circulation on the continent during glacial stages. Based on new mapping of glacial landforms and sediments, we reconstruct the extent and ice-surface geometry as well as establish equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) using the Area-Altitude-Balance-Ratio method for 40 palaeo-glaciers in the study area during the local Last Glacial Maximum (LLGM). Additionally, we list the inventory and morphometric characteristics of glacial cirques in the studied massifs (n = 77), which together with the local ELA pattern are discussed in the context of palaeo-wind directions and dominant precipitation patterns during the LGM. ELA values for the Svydovets (1401 m a.s.l.) and Chornohora (1516 m a.s.l.) massifs were much lower than those for the Rodna Mountains (1697 m) in the Northern Romanian Carpathians located 80 km to the southeast, and for the Tatra Mountains (1580 m) located 350 km to the northwest. In the Ukrainian Carpathians both glacier ELA and cirque elevations show a rising trend towards the southeast of 4 m km−1 controlled by preferential moisture transport from the northwest. This suggests that the dominant W-NW precipitation regime in effect during the LGM was similar to present-day conditions. This supports a previous glacial-geomorphologic reconstruction from the Rodna Mountains in Northern Romania and is in line with both model simulations and regional palaeo-wind proxies that show an enhanced mid-latitude North Atlantic zonal circulation pattern over central Europe during the LGM.

This report opens a new window on Quaternary tectonics of the Outer Western Carpathians. We discuss results of fractured clasts analysis in Quaternary fluvial gravels within a 4.500 km2 large area comprising a part of the Outer Carpathians including Nowy Sącz Intramontane Basin (NSIB) as well as in the innermost part of the Carpathian Foredeep. Quaternary gravels bearing fractured clasts are widespread within the area, we observed them in 180 exposures. In the Carpathian Foredeep and in the Outer Carpathians excluding the NSIB, the exposures of gravels bearing fractured clasts are located largely close to (

The Tatra Mountains are the highest massif in the Carpathian mountain arc (2655 m) and represent a typical alpine landscape developed in the course of Pleistocene glaciations, but are not glacierized today. The glacial relief of the massif offers an abundance of topographic depressions (cirque overdeepenings, morainic closed depressions) where sedimentary sequences may potentially reveal paleoenvironmental changes that may have occurred since the glaciers' retreat from the Last Glacial Maximum position (∼26–18 ka). We present a review of Late Glacial and Holocene sedimentary archives from the Tatra Mountains collected in the Polish and non-Polish literature. The data sets (40 sites) included 21 lake, 13 peat bog, and 6 colluvial sediment sites. The entire listed sediment sequence features radiometric datings or at the very least a chronological framework is inferred from the biostratigraphy. The oldest sampled sedimentary sequences were dated back to the Oldest Dryas and were obtained from the deepest glacial lakes located in the subalpine zone (up to 1700 m). Shallow lakes (

The Piec Stawow Polskich-Roztoka Valley in the High Tatras (Western Carpathians) features typical alpine-type relief with a deeply incised glacial trough and large, compound trough head cirque. The prominent hypsographic maximum in the valley (1680–2000 m) along with a broad cirque bottom had provided a vast space for recording glacial and periglacial landforms, specifically the most recent Lateglacial advances. The valley has been intensively studied before in the context of glacial chronology. In this paper, we re-establish the post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) glacial chronology of the valley via detailed geomorphologic mapping, equilibrium line altitude (ELA) reconstruction, and Schmidt hammer (SH) dating, along with a critical review of previously published cosmogenic exposure age data ( 36 Cl) and lacustrine sediment chronology. Our results indicate that the first four of the five distinguished Lateglacial stages (Roztoka I–III, Pusta I) occurred before the Bolling/Allerod (B/A) interstadial; thus, virtually the entire valley became deglaciated in course of the Oldest Dryas cold phase. A distinct reorganization of deglacial patterns from valley-type to marginal-type occurred before B/A warming when the ELA increased above the valley hypsographic maximum concentrated at the cirque bottom elevation. It shows that noticeable deglaciation step can be caused due to topographic reason with a minimal climate forcing. This points also to an important role of glaciated valley hypsography in regulating the distribution of moraines which is rarely taken into account in paleoglaciological reconstructions. We infer that glaciers vanished in the Tatra Mountains during the B/A interstadial. Later, a renewed advance during the Younger Dryas (Pusta II) formed a nearly continuous, festoon shaped pattern of moraines and rock glaciers in close distance to cirque backwalls. Furthermore, we discus some paleoenvironmental significance of the geomorphological record in the valley, as well, the applicability of SH dating in constructing glacial chronology.

The timing of glacier disappearance and rock glacier stabilization in the highest massifs of the Carpathians is still poorly documented. In this paper, we establish the extent and chronology of the final stages of glaciation and timing of stabilization of the uppermost rock glaciers in the Tatra Mountains, which are the highest (2654 m a.s.l.), northernmost (N 49°12′), and coldest range in the Carpathians. On the base of morphostratigraphic principles, Schmidt Hammer tests and glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA) estimation, we assigned moraines and rock glaciers in the Mt. Krivaň massif (SW part of High Tatras) to a threefold stratigraphic sequence with glacial stages/advances from older to younger: Popradske pleso (Pp), Sucha važecka I (Sv I) and Sucha važecka II (Sv II). Landforms attributed to two younger advances, Sv I and Sv II, were sampled for the purpose of cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure dating. Our data show that Pp and Sv I glacial advances occurred during the Oldest Dryas climatic downturn. The younger advance (Sv I) occurred just before the Bolling-Allerod (B/A) warming at 14.9 ± 0.4 ka, at this time small glaciers occupied lower glacial cirques in the study area. The youngest Sv II advance was characterized by rock glaciers and small debris-covered glaciers confined to the highest cirques. The mean exposure age of four relict rock glaciers of this stage is 11.1 ± 0.9 ka but individual rock glacier mean ages spanned between 11.8 and 10.4 ka. Our research results show that the youngest moraines and rock glaciers in the Tatra Mountains were formed during the Younger Dryas (YD), but the final permafrost melting and rock glacier stabilization period was delayed until the early Holocene, but no later than 10.4 ka. In high elevation cirque bottoms (up to 2120 m a.s.l.), the YD glaciers and rock glaciers readvanced across land which was ice-free as early as 14.8–14.2 ka. Thus, it is likely that during the B/A interphase, glaciers completely disappeared in the Tatra Mountains. The YD was the last period of glacial/periglacial activity in the massif. As we investigated one of the highest-situated rock glaciers in the Tatras (up to 2220 m a.s.l.), we conclude that all rock glaciers in this massif are relict landforms which developed in response to severe Lateglacial climate conditions. The Lateglacial climate of the Tatra Mountains is discussed herein on the basis of glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA) estimation and the vertical distribution of rock glacier belts. We argue that paleoclimate significance of the presented geomorphological record may match paleobotanical proxy reconstructions and the results of climate simulations, but only if the impact of enhanced temperature seasonality on glacier mass balance and rock glacier activity is taken into account.

We reconstruct the timing of ice flow reconfiguration and deglaciation of the Central Alpine Gotthard Pass, Switzerland, using cosmogenic 10Be and in situ14C surface exposure dating. Combined with mapping of glacial erosional markers, exposure ages of bedrock surfaces reveal progressive glacier downwasting from the maximum LGM ice volume and a gradual reorganization of the paleoflow pattern with a southward migration of the ice divide. Exposure ages of ∼16–14 ka (snow corrected) give evidence for continuous early Lateglacial ice cover and indicate that the first deglaciation was contemporaneous with the decay of the large Gschnitz glacier system. In agreement with published ages from other Alpine passes, these data support the concept of large transection glaciers that persisted in the high Alps after the breakdown of the LGM ice masses in the foreland and possibly decayed as late as the onset of the Bolling warming. A younger group of ages around ∼12–13 ka records the timing of deglaciation following local glacier readvance during the Egesen stadial. Glacial erosional features and the distribution of exposure ages consistently imply that Egesen glaciers were of comparatively small volume and were following a topographically controlled paleoflow pattern. Dating of a boulder close to the pass elevation gives a minimum age of 11.1 ± 0.4 ka for final deglaciation by the end of the Younger Dryas. In situ14C data are overall in good agreement with the 10Be ages and confirm continuous exposure throughout the Holocene. However, in situ14C demonstrates that partial surface shielding, e.g. by snow, has to be incorporated in the exposure age calculations and the model of deglaciation.

The main episode of Pliocene–Quaternary tectonic activity in the Red River Fault Zone in Vietnam was related to dextral strike-slip motions while uplift of the SW and NE sides of the fault zone was limited. In the Vietnamese segment of this zone, traces of pre-Pliocene mature relief were preserved to a much smaller extent compared to those in Yunnan Province, China. The main factors controlling headward erosion of tributary streams were lithologic contrasts within the solid bedrock. Tectonic-geomorphic studies indicate that the amount of Quaternary dextral offset of the Red River Fault Zone in Vietnam, calculated from offset and deflection of tributary valleys of the Red River, ranges between some 400 m and 5.3 km, averaging 1.1–2 km. The corresponding rates of slip are 0.43–1.1 mm/yr for individual displaced segments and 5.5–7.8 mm/yr for the inferred cumulative displacement. Fluvial terraces in the medial segment were mainly shaped in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, except the highest one (40–50 m) which was probably formed in Mid-Pleistocene time. Taking into account the amount of dextral displacement of terrace steps and related alluvial fans, the most realistic estimation of Mid-Pleistocene through Holocene slip rate is 0.9–3.9 mm/yr. The axis of maximum horizontal compression associated with dextral slip of the fault zone was aligned NNW–SSE to N–S, and the fault motion in the Quaternary resulted mainly from aseismic creep.