Zircon and apatite fission-track dating indicates that the exhumation of the Dabie Mountains tended to be accelerated in the Cenozoic and that the exhumation of the eastern Dabie Mountains was more and more intense from south to north, which is in accordance with the more and more intense dissection from south to north, as is reflected by the modern geomorphologic features of the Dabie Mountains. The accelerated exhumation during the Cenozoic was related to the high elevation of the Dabie Mountains resulting from Late Cretaceous-Palaeogene detachment faulting and subsequent fault-block uplift and subsidence. The average elevation at that time was at least about 660 m higher than that at the present. The intense exhumation lagged behind intense uplift.