Identification and analysis of Quaternary alluvial terraces for climatic and tectonic signals detection purposes: a case study from the central Marche Apennines (central Italy)

River terraces, together with their deposits, can provide a great deal of information about the history of a drainage system, from a hydrological and sedimentological perspective. As such, they are functional to understand the influence of tectonics, varying climate and base level change on landscapes, and their relevance as geomorphic markers is widely recognized. Through the complete and accurate analysis by remote sensing and field work of the Marche drainage network, it has been possible to identify and reinterpret the main river terrace staircase and to map its remnants in detail, with the perspective of attempting the detection and interpretation of the tectonic and climatic signals preserved in it.
The selected area is challenging from a geomorphological and geomorphometric standpoint because it is characterized by low-rate tectonic activity and a well-preserved fill terrace staircase, middle-to-upper Pleistocene in age, allowing to analyse this classic climatic signal-bearing feature in a tectonically active setting. This work was based on a relatively innovative approach, that analyses Relative Elevation Models (REMs), converted from 1 m/pixel DEMs collected from a 1x1 LiDAR dataset, to better pinpoint river terraces through the identification of their surfaces with the Surface Classification Model (SCM). Once detected through remote techniques, the fill terraces will also be interpreted basing the analysis on field data and geochronological constraints, with the aim of isolating the climatic and tectonic signal they have recorded.