Seminar: Surface response to deep forcing mechanisms: insights from the Apennines, Italy

Friday, 11th February 2022 - 3 pm (Live and online)
Department of Science, Università Roma Tre
Riccardo Lanari (PhD, Università di Firenze)
PiRATES (PhD at uni RomA Tre in Earth Sciences and friends) seminar series

Topographic elevation of orogenic belts responds to several processes and contributions occurring at different temporal and spatial scales, from short- to long-term and from the surface up to the mantle. Untangling the linkage between surface, crust, and deeper processes is one the most enthralling aspect in exploring Earth dynamics. Here, we investigate the connection between surface and depth along the Italian Apennines which are a perfect natural laboratory because of the presence of a complex geodynamic settings along strike, that changes from active subduction in the north Apennines and Calabria, to slab break off in the Central/Southern Apennines. How these along strike geodynamic force variations affect the geometry of the surface, the patter of exhumation, and the shape of the Moho is still unclear and require to be unravelled.

We present four set of observations that include:
-    a new geomorphic and morphometric set of analyses (ksn, and χ);
-    a database of thermochronological cooling ages (fission track and (U-Th)/He both on apatite);
-    a compilation of the youngest lacustrine deposit within each extensional basin that we used to restore the orogenic drainage divide back in time;
-    a database of all Moho depth estimations from receiver functions. From those four sets of data emerges that surface, crust and mantle interact each other. Moreover, for the first time, we document how the morphology at the surface perfectly resemble the geometry of the crust and the shape of the Moho. 
 
Finally, this study confirms the importance of exploring crustal and surface processes in order to encode the geometry of the depth and therefore possible slab/mantle processes.

Information: paolo.ballato@uniroma3.it or marco.liberatore@uniroma3.it