Topography, exhumation, and drainage network evolution of the Apennines

Abstract

The present-day topography of the Italian peninsula results from the interactions between crustal-mantle and surface processes occurring since the Late Miocene. Analysis of exhumation and cooling of crustal rocks, together with Quaternary drainage evolution, helps to unravel the tectonic-morphologic evolution of the Apennines by distinguishing end-member models, and hence describing the orogenic belt evolution. The pattern of regional topography, erosional history and present-day distribution of active deformation suggests that the eastward migrating extensional-compressional paired deformation belts may still control the topography of the northern Apennines, albeit at slower rates than in the past. Conversely, Quaternary drainage evolution in the central and southern Apennines suggests that the topography of these regions underwent a Quaternary regional arching, which is only partly consistent with the persisting migration of the compressional-extensional pair.