Evolution of karst and landscape of the Lessini Veronesi Mountains (Venetian Prealps, north-east Italy) from the Paleogene to the Present

Roberto Zorzin¹, Giovanni Cavallo², Irene Tomelleri¹ & Michele Sommaruga^3
1Civic Museum of Natural History of Verona, Department of Geology and Palaeontology, Lungadige Porta Vittoria 9, 37129 Verona, Italy.
²SUPSI, Institute of Materials and Constructions, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15, 6850 Mendrisio, Switzerland.
³Freelance geologist, Lungadige Campagnola 16, 37121 Verona, Italy.
Corresponding author e-mail: roberto.zorzin@comune.verona.it

Within the Italian southern Alps, the Lessini Veronesi Mountains (western Veneto) represent a mildly tilted portion of the foreland located along the south margin of the south-Alpine chain, and only slightly affected by thrust faulting. The present setting is mainly controlled by a pronounced regional flexure toward the Apennine chain, which caused the tilting of the Lessini Veronesi Mountains and the uplift of their northern margin. The analysis of karst, fluvioglacial, and glacial deposits, together with the morphology of the Lessini tableland, provides key insights into the environmental and geomorphic processes that shaped the area. Based on recent studies, the Lessini plateau’s evolution from the first evidence of its emergence to the current geomorphological setting is depicted. Since the first phases of the uplift of the Lessini plateau, the karst cavities have played a crucial role in the conservation of continental sediments, witnessing ancient environments. On the other hand, starting from the Pleistocene, karst and river modelling overprinted the morphologies and deposits relative to several Pleistocene glacial cycles.

Lessini Veronesi Mountains, Paleogene karst, Neogene karst and landscape, Pleistocene landscape, glacialism.