Topography, exhumation, and drainage network

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.