The development of sedimentary basins includes a variety of processes such as exhumation and erosion in the source terrains, sediment transport, and subsidence. In turn, these processes are strictly related to a whole spectrum of driving mechanisms that can be referred to tectonics, climate and base-level changes.

The research activities are therefore based on an integrated approach that, starting from field activities, comprises different analytical techniques as sedimentary and organic petrography, detrital and bedrock thermochronology and geochronology, geochemistry, and modelling procedures. The projects are mostly related to the basins that extend along some of the major orogenic belts such as the Andes (Ecuador forearc and Patagonia foreland), the Alpine-Himalayan belt (Adriatic foreland, Caucasus, Anatolia, Tibetan Plateau), the Transantarctic Mountains (Ross Sea).

Professors coordinating and developing projects related to this research pathway: Cristina Stefani, Massimiliano Zattin, Anna Breda, Massimiliano Ghinassi, Matteo Massironi, Valerio Olivetti