The isotopic ages of rocks and minerals are fundamentally determined by their integrated thermal history, and thermochronology is a technique that permits the extraction of information about the thermal history of rocks. It is based on the interplay between the accumulation of a daughter product produced through a nuclear decay reaction in the rock (whether this daughter product is an isotope or some sort of structural damage to the mineral lattice) and the removal of that daughter product by thermally activated diffusion. Because temperature increases with depth in the Earth’s lithosphere, this temperature information can be translated into thermochronological data thus contain a record of the depth below the surface at which rocks resided at a given time, providing key information on the various geological processes of the surface to the lower crust. Every isotopic system will behave as an open system at high temperatures, at which the daughter product is removed by diffusion more rapidly than it is produced by nuclear decay, and as a closed system at low temperatures, at which removal is so slow that all daughter product is retained within the host mineral over geological timescales. The switch from open- to closed- system behavior is not instantaneous, but rather takes place over a discrete temperature interval known as the partial- retention zone. Somewhere within this temperature range lies the closure temperature, formally defined as “temperature of a thermochronological system at the time corresponding to its apparent age”. In this paper, we focus on low- to- intermediate- temperature systems, with closure temperatures ≤350~400 °C, which including 40Ar- 39Ar、fission track and (U—Th)/He。We review basics of the three thermochronology and present detail interpretations such as closure temperature, partial annealing zone (PAZ) and partial retention zone (PRZ), fission track ages (mean age， pooled age, central age), and lag time are analyzed in detail. For the age—elevation relationship (AER), we illustrate the relationships among vertical motions, temperature history and the accumulation of fission tracks. We also derive the interpretations of uplift, exhumation and denudation, as well as the analytical mathematical descriptions between them when equilibrium rebound is considered or not. Thermochronology and geochronological dating can constrain higher temperature histories and/or rock formation age, so we provide some geological applications of constrain ages of rocks and tectonic processes, investigation of denudation histories and long- term landscape evolution of various geological settings, basin analysis, thermal history evolution and preservation change of deposits. In the furture, the application of comprehensive thermochronology can provide more key information for earth science research.