The topography of the eastern Southern Alps (ESA) reflects indenter tectonics causing crustal shortening, surface uplift, and erosional response. Fluvial drainages were perturbed by Pleistocene glaciations that locally excavated alpine valleys. The Late Miocene desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea and the uplift of the northern Molasse Basin led to significant base level changes in the far field of the ESA and the Eastern Alps (EA), respectively. Among this multitude of mechanisms, the processes that dominate the current topographic evolution of the ESA and the ESA-EA drainage divide have not been identified. We demonstrate the expected topographic effects of each mechanism in a one-dimensional model and compare them with observed channel metrics. We find that the normalized steepness index increases with uplift rate and declines from the indenter tip in the northwest to the foreland basin in the southeast. The number and amplitude of knickpoints and the distortion in longitudinal channel profiles similarly decrease toward the east. Changes in slope of χ-transformed channel profiles coincide spatially with the Valsugana-Fella fault linking crustal stacking and uplift induced by indenter tectonics with topographic evolution. Gradients in χ across the ESA-EA drainage divide imply an ongoing, north directed shift of the Danube-ESA watershed that is most likely driven by a base level rise in the northern Molasse basin. We conclude that the regional uplift pattern controls the geometry of ESA-EA channels, while base level changes in the far field control the overall architecture of the orogen by drainage divide migration.

中文翻译：

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大陆压痕的地形：南阿尔卑斯山东部的地壳变形，侵蚀和基准面变化之间的相互作用。

东南部阿尔卑斯山（ESA）的地形反映了压头构造，导致地壳缩短，表面隆起和侵蚀响应。河道排水受到当地开挖的高新世冰川的干扰。地中海中新世晚期干燥和北部莫拉西盆地的隆升分别导致欧空局和东阿尔卑斯山（EA）远场的基层发生重大变化。在众多机制中，尚未确定主导ESA当前地形演变和ESA-EA排水鸿沟的过程。我们在一维模型中展示了每种机制的预期地形影响，并将它们与观察到的渠道指标进行了比较。我们发现归一化陡度指数随上升速率的增加而增加，从西北的压头尖端到东南的前陆盆地下降。拐点的数量和幅度以及纵向通道轮廓中的变形类似地向东减小。χ转换通道剖面的斜率变化在空间上与Valsugana-Fella断层相吻合，该断层将压头构造与地形演化引起的地壳堆积和隆升联系起来。ESA-EA排水沟中的χ梯度表示多瑙河-ESA流域正在进行北移，这很可能是由北部Molasse盆地的基准水位升高驱动的。我们得出结论，区域隆升模式控制着ESA-EA通道的几何形状，