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[1] We integrate existing and new geologic data [REtreating TRench, Extension, and Accretion Tectonics (RETREAT project)], particularly on the origin, growth, and activity of the mountain front at Bologna, Italy, into a new model that explains Apennine orogenesis in the context of a slab rollback -upper plate retreat process. The Bologna mountain front is an actively growing structure driving rock uplift $1 mm/year, cored by a midcrustal flat-ramp structure that accommodates ongoing shortening driven by Adria subduction at a rate of $2.5 mm/year. The data we use are assembled from river terraces and associated Pleistocene growth strata, geodesy including releveling surveys, reinterpretation of published reflection lines, and a new high-resolution reflection line. These data constrain a simple trishear model that inverts for blind thrust ramp depth, dip, and slip. Apennine extension is recognized both in the foreland, as high-angle normal faults and modest stretching in the carapace of the growing mountain front, and in the hinterland, with larger normal faults that accomplish some crustal thinning as the upper plate retreats. This coevolution of extension and shortening shares some notable characteristics with other basement-involved collisional orogens including the early Tertiary Laramide orogeny in the American West and the Oligocene to Miocene evolution of the Alps. We propose a possible relationship between underplating and the development of the Po as a sag basin as a Quaternary phenomenon that may also apply to past periods of Apennine deformation (Tortonian). Continued shortening on the structure beneath the Bologna mountain front represents by far the most important and underappreciated seismogenic source in the front of the northern Apennines.

At the end of the Miocene, the European Alps ceased outward expansion, and tectonic uplift and exhumation shifted into the orogen interior. This shift is consistent with a change from orogenic construction to orogenic destruction, reflecting an increase in the ratio of erosional flux to accretionary flux. The coincidence of this change with an increase in sediment yield from the Alps suggests a climate-driven increase in erosional flux. The timing of deformation and sediment release from the southern Alps indicates that the tectonic change occurred synchronous with the last phase of the Messinian salinity crisis. We attribute the increase in erosional flux to a climatic shift to wetter conditions throughout Europe, likely augmented by the base-level fall that occurred during the Mediterranean dessication. This climate change is represented in the stratigraphic record by the Lago Mare deposits of the Mediterranean salinity crisis.

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