Quaternary deformations, palaeosols and strata across the Northern Apennines

The Northern Apennines chain is an active orogen developed in a continental collisional setting. During the Quaternary active tectonics, climate fluctuations, and sea-level change left a clear imprint on the regional geomorphology and the surface geology. Examination of stratigraphically correlated palaeosols within alluvial and coastal clastic successions occurring on both sides of the chain, i.e., on the active front (Northern slope) and the back-arc area (Tuscany), provide fine detail to reconstructions of the orogen dynamic during the Quaternary. Examples of dated and correlated palaeosols within their morpho-structural, stratigraphic, and sedimentological context, will be presented and discussed on the Northern side of the chain (Ghiardo plateau, in the picture) and in the coastal Tuscany (Baratti gulf). In the transfer from the northern slopes to the back-arc area, selected stops in the Pleistocene fluvio-lacustrine Mugello basin will provide a sight into the morpho-stratigraphic architecture of an intermontane basin developed in the axial portion of the Northern Apennines.