The holocenic evolution of a stretch of an eastern italian alpine valley

The morphological evolution of a stretch of an alpine valley located in the Eastern Italian Alps is described. This has been conditioned by a great alluvial fan that was formed as a consequence of interconnected events, deriving from large rockfalls which occurred in the late glacial period at the head of the Missiaga–Bordina valley, on the left side of the Agordo basin. The aggradation of the alluvial fan blocked the Cordevole valley south of the Agordo basin and produced a lake that is documented by lacustrine sediments. Age determination by 14C techniques on wood remnants found in these sediments fixes the life of the lake at between approximately 5880 and 5300 years BP. This represents, indirectly, the age of the main phase of the development of the fan. After the building up of the alluvial fan, an erosional phase began, leading to the formation of the present landscape. A series of illustrations depicts the sequence of the fan's development.