Soil evolution and origin of landscape in a late Quaternary tectonically mobile setting: The Po Plain-Northern Apennines border in Lombardy (Italy)

Polycyclic loess-soil aggradation characterized the stable paleo-highs, uplifted during different phases of active thrusting of the northernmost Emilian arcs of the Apennine, while valley incision, fluvial terracing, soil truncation and redeposition occurred in the intervening structural lows. In the San Colombano hill area, Late Pleistocene transtensional faulting induced changes of the drainage network and enhanced redeposition of paleosols in colluvial wedges on the hangingwalls, along the fault scarps. LGM loess was preserved above different dissected remnants of the paleo-topography composing the hilltops. These new constraints permit to refine the Late Quaternary tectono-depositional history and landscape evolution at the southern margin of the Po Basin.