Lake Garda: An Outstanding Archive of Quaternary Geomorphological Evolution

Pleistocene glaciers repeatedly filled the elongated crypto-depression presently hosting Lake Garda, building a complex suite of end moraines at the Alpine foothills and looping out onto the Po Plain. The moraine amphitheatre impounded Lake Garda, the widest Italian lake, and offers a well famous example of glacially originated landscape. The mountain sector of the lake depression deeply enters the alpine border and the complex geological structure strongly conditioned the geomorphological setting of the area. A suite of well-preserved lacustrine relict landforms document the articulated history of the paleo-Lake Garda that developed after the withdrawal of Pleistocene glaciers. Relevant is the connection of landscape features and Quaternary sediments with the archaeological heritage of human frequentation of the area, furnishing a very helpful tool for investigating the paleoclimatic evolution of this region as well as for investigating neotectonic activity.