Su alcune superfici sommitali dell’Appennino settentrionale (prov. di Lucca e Pistoia)

Summit areas in Northern Apennines (Lucca and Pistoia provinces)

Abstract

A few summit areas of low relief lying between the Serchio river and Pistoia have been investigated in order to understand their origin. The description of such areas has been carried out by means of: a) profiles of divides drawn from topographic maps at scale 1: 25 000; b) photogrammetric profiles of rivers draining the low relief areas; c) frequency distributions of contour lines in the studied area; d) an hypsographic curve obtained from a digital model of the studied area. From the analysis of such points the anomalous character of the low-relief areas within the Apennines relief has been pointed out. A few additional analyses were then carried out in order to obtain a close-up image of the low relief morphologies; they include: e) frequency distributions of the contour lines lying within the seventeen low-relief areas identified on aerial photographs; f) an hypsographic curve of the former, drawn from the digital model; g) a photogrammetric study of a sample area. The purpose of the photogrammetric mapping was primarily to give a better description of the low relief morphology as compared with that available through ordinary maps; moreover, it allowed to test the accuracy of the digital model obtained from such maps. On the basis of their morphological features and of their geological setting, the low-relief summit areas are interpreted as uplifted palaeomorphologies. The age of the latter will be dealt of elsewhere when both geologic as well as pedologic elements will be fully worked out.