Morphotectonics and late Quaternary seismic stratigraphy of Lake Garda (Northern Italy)

Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy at the southern front of the central Alps, provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct Quaternary geological processes related to the interplay between deglaciation driven sedimentation and tectonic activity. In fact, the topographic depression presently occupied by the lake was site of a major glacial tongue during the LGM, and is located close to the epicentral areas of two of the largest magnitude historical earthquakes recorded in the Po Plain, the Verona (Jan. 13, 1117) and Brescia, (Dec. 25, 1222) seismic events, characterized by Io IX-X MCS, respectively. Despite this peculiarity, geophysical surveys of the lake are scant.