Geomorphological Map of the Salento Peninsula (southern Italy)

Abstract

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A geomorphological map of the Salento peninsula is presented at a 1:120,000 scale. The map was compiled by combining the available geological and geomorphological information with data derived from: (a) Digital Terrain Model interpretation, (b) an analysis of aerial photographs at a 1:33,000 scale and (c) a geomorphological fieldwork. The Salento peninsula, the southeast portion of the Apulia region in southern Italy, shows peculiar geological and geomorphological characteristics: it is a karstic area, nearly flat, with subsiding zones (Graben) between small ridges (Horst). They were originated by tectonic stresses, resulting in scarps of normal faults and, therefore, in macroscale structures. In addition, some exogenous (meso- and microscale) landforms were originated on the Graben structures, where there are permeable miocenic, pliocenic and pleistocenic sediments with muddy-clayey strata and others which stand on carbonatic substratum, represented by limestone, dolomitic limestone and dolomite, main lithologies of the Horst structures. The results are presented on the map, using a geographic information system (Arcview software). In addition, a digital terrain model, produced from a spatial analysis of contour lines, provides a general topographical setting.