The present configuration of the different structural units of central Po Plain is strongly controlled by the tectonic setting that characterized this area since the end of Mesozoic.
The older, mainly extensional structures controlled the evolution of both the Alpine and Apenninic thrust fronts from latest Oligocene to Pleistocene.
The younger reactivations (upper Pleistocene) of these faults are generally located in the outer portions of the Southern Alps and Northern Apennines structural arcs and in the intermediate residual foreland that separates these two thrust-fold belts presently characterized by opposite vergence.