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The northern margin of the West African Craton preserved in the Anti-Atlas area of southern Morocco, represents an outstanding geological archive covering parts of the Neoproterozoic and the Paleozoic. Despite isolated mentions in the literature, relics of Neoproterozoic glaciations have hitherto not received much attention in this area and tight geochronological constraints had been lacking. This paper documents the sedimentology and stratigraphic context of several occurrences from the eastern and central Anti-Atlas. Based on outcrop-scale sedimentological and microsedimentological investigations, different types of diamictites are distinguished and their origin with reference to modern glacial systems is discussed. The sedimentary record is explained by one single glacial period (albeit interrupted by interglacial phases) affecting both mountainous terrestrial and marine realms. Sedimentary facies and preserved paleotopographies are best accounted for by invoking a fjord-like depositional system with steep-sided valleys being repeatedly drowned by marine water or occupied by valley glaciers. High-precision geochronological constraints suggest that this glacial period must have taken place sometimes between 592 Ma and 579 Ma. Hence it is suggested that this is the first temporally constrained report of the Ediacaran Gaskiers glaciation on the West African Craton (WAC). Existing Ediacaran paleomagnetic data from the WAC are sparse and allow different interpretations regarding paleolatitude of this glaciation. The latter is finally discussed vis-a-vis potential rapid true polar wander events and the possibility that the Gaskiers glaciation was more global in extent than hitherto assumed and might even have brought Earth close to a true pan-glacial state.

{OSL} and {IRSL} dating are applied to samples from a 152 m-long drill core to constrain the timing of three glaciolacustrine depositional periods within the infill of an overdeepened bedrock trough in the Lower Glatt valley, N Switzerland. The characterisation of the dose-response suggests that the polymineral {IRSL50} and pIRIR180/225 signals are close to saturation, while quartz {OSL} ages are within the range of reliable dating. The demarcation of the upper quartz {OSL} dating limit, however, remains challenging. Dose-recovery tests performed with long storage periods were used to investigate the reliability of the high region of the dose-response curve. They suggest an upper limit for reliable dating of ~400 Gy for these samples, which was considerably lower than the commonly used 2D0 criterion. Lifetimes were calculated for the quartz {OSL} and the thermal stability of the signal is not considered as problematic for the determined ages. Allowing for a contribution from inherited dose due to partial bleaching, places the infill of the overdeepened valley within the penultimate glacial cycle (MIS6).

Extensive glaciers repeatedly occupied the northern Alpine Foreland during the Pleistocene and left a strongly glacially overprinted low slope landscape. Only few islands appeared as nunataks standing above the surface of the large piedmont glacier lobes. These nunatak areas kept their original shape, manifested in steep catchments with mean slopes up to 33 . Even though not glaciated, these catchments where significantly affected by base-level changes occurring as a consequence of phases of glacier advances and retreats. Both domains, the glacially eroded and non-eroded, are therefore prone to different mechanisms and time-scales of fluvial and colluvial re-adjustment. In this study we investigate these effects by exploring the spatial distribution and magnitude of denudation in the Hornli region of the eastern Swiss Alpine Foreland in the present Interglacial. The area represents both domains in a relatively small area with largely uniform tectonic, lithologic and climatic conditions. The differences in Holocene andscape evolution are investigated using topographic analyses and catchment-averaged denudation rates derived from 10Be concentrations in fluvial quartz sand. We find that in formerly non-glaciated, fluvially dominated catchments close hillslope-channel coupling prevails and that these catchments yield high average denudation rates of 350 mm/ka. Glacially overprinted catchments yielded catchment-wide denudation rates an order of magnitude lower. These low denudation rates are hypothesized to be the consequence of both (i) a dominance of slow hillslope processes and (ii) admixture of high concentration, pre-LGM glacial sediment. This suggests that a) a careful field investigation must accompany the denudation rate studies and b) that the concept of area-weighted cosmogenic nuclide denudation rates must be considered in light of the predominant catchment processes.