This research addresses interactions between tectonics, climate and geomorphic processes at the surface of the Earth through the study of river terraces in Venezuela and Albania. Both areas have been exposed to moderate uplift, to Quaternary climatic variations and provide a wide record of river terraces. These contexts furnish opportunities to investigate the dynamics of terraces formation at 102-105 year time scale. Thus, a morphochronologic approach was applied in order to achieve greater understanding about this issue for the Venezuelan and Albanian rivers. In the Pueblo Llano and Santo Domingo rivers system located in the Southeastern flank of the Mérida Andes in Venezuela, twelve river terraces were identified for the last 200 ka. Analysis of 10Be concentration provides for the first time exposure ages for seven terraces and for one frontal moraine complex. A terraces model supported by these dating and geomorphologic, stratigraphic and sedimentologic data indicates that the formation of terraces was mainly controlled by high frequency (103-104 years) climatic variations through unsteady discharge of water and sediments. Nevertheless, the type of response was highly related to the altitude of the site and the influence of usptreams glaciers. As a matter of fact, in the upper reaches of the system, the succession of aggradation and incision phases were synchronized with the succession of cold-dry and warm-humid periods, while the lower reaches of the system show the opposite pattern. Based on the temporal restoration of the incision rate of the lower reaches of the system an uplift rate at 1.1 mm/a for the last 70 ka was estimated for the Southeastern flank of the MA. Additionally, the identification and dating of a frontal moraine complex located at elevation of 2300 m a.s.l. in the Pueblo Llano valley highlights the fact that the glacier advance during the Last Glacial Maximum, in other areas of the MA could have also reached lower elevation than those reported between 2900 and 3500 m a.s.l. In the Albania domain, the terrace records of the six main Albanian rivers were analyzed. New geomorphologic and geochronological data were integrated with published data in order to propose a regional homogeneous stratigraphic/chronologic framework for the last 200 ka. Based on this framework the timing of formation of eleven regional river terraces was established. In Albania, the processes of terraces formation were also mainly controlled by high frequency (103-104 years) climatic variations. Nonetheless, the results also show that the geomorphic responses of the fluvial systems were probably modulated by the size of the catchments and by eustatic variations. Indeed, for the pre-Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2) period, fill and strath terraces were formed in the large and small catchments, respectively. After the beginning of the MIS 2, a complex relation between climatic and eustatic variations only favored the development of strath terraces in large and small catchments. Despite of the differences between the rivers responses, the succession of aggradation or lateral erosion and incision phases were synchronized with the succession of cold-dry and warm-humid periods in all the rivers of Albania. Finally, the restoration of spatial and temporal variation of incision rate allowed: 1) identify the spatial variation of the mean long-term incision rate. It varies from less than 0.1 mm/a in Southern Albania to 1 mm/a in Northern Albania; 2) estimate vertical slip rates for eight active faults for the last 19 ka in Southern Albania. These vertical slip rates appear to decrease from ~2 to ~0.1 mm/a from the extensional domain in the Eastern Albania to the compressional domain in Western Albania.
