Dating of Quaternary archives: advancements and perspectives for understanding environmental change

Establishing robust and precise chronologies is fundamental to understanding environmental and climatic dynamics throughout the Quaternary period. Over the past decades, geochronological techniques - such as trapped charge dating (luminescence and electron spin resonance), cosmogenic nuclides, among others - have greatly advanced in terms of precision, accuracy, and broader applicability. These methods now provide crucial insights into the timing, duration, frequency, and intensity of Earth surface processes across a wide variety of environmental and geological settings. Such insights are essential for disentangling complex Earth system interactions and for contextualizing present-day climate trends within long-term natural variability. This contribution will focus on the advancements and practical applications of dating techniques in Quaternary archives. Special attention will be given to the role of trapped charge dating methods applied to diverse climatic and geomorphic settings. By aligning different chronological frameworks, more coherent and reliable reconstructions of past environmental change and landscape evolution can be developed. Ultimately, improved temporal frameworks enhance our ability to understand the mechanisms, thresholds, and feedbacks driving environmental change. This contribution aims to highlight current challenges, emerging tools, and future directions in Quaternary geochronology from selected case studies, underlining its central role in geosciences.