Topography, exhumation, and drainage network evolution of the Apennines

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 topogra-phy of the northern Apennines, albeit at slower rates than in the past. Conversely, Quaternary drainage evo-lution in the central and southern Apennines suggests that the topography of these regions underwent a Quaternary regional arching, which is only partly con-sistent with the persisting migration of the compres-sional-extensional pair.