The Italian Peninsula

Despite the southern latitude and relatively low mountain elevations, the Italian Peninsula preserves a wide range of periglacial landforms. Most of them were active during the cold phases of the Late Pleistocene and currently cold-driven processes are ongoing only in the higher slopes of the Apennine chain. Periglacial landforms have always been present in the background of research, especially that devoted to Apennine glaciers. Only in the last decades of the twentieth century they received specific, although not continuous, attention. However, to date detailed observations on formative processes (rates and chronology) and on (palaeo)climatic significances are scarce. In general, periglacial landforms in the Italian Peninsula are both minor (sorted circles, sorted stripes, solifluctions, hearth hummocks) and large-scale features (block streams, scree deposits, protalus ramparts, rock glaciers). These can be found from altitudes close to sea-level (relict stratified scree) up to over 2,500 m a.s.l. (patterned ground features, solifluction lobes). In the Central Apennines (Gran Sasso Massif), a rock glacier with a front elevation at about 2,550 m could still contain permafrost. By inserting the periglacial landforms in a chronological scheme together with the data of other climatic proxies (glacial advances/standstills, oscillations of lake water-depth) their contribution in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions becomes more evident, not only by remarking cold events but also periods of aridity.