Topography is the time integrated record of tectonics and climate produced through changes in uplift, erosion and
sedimentation. River incision is coupled with uplift, so channel elevation as a function of downstream distance
may be numerically ‘inverted’ to quantify past changes in uplift rate. I calibrated an erosion law for Sardinia
and Calabria, then utilised numerical inverse methods to quantify Pliocene–Recent throw rates of normal faults
in these study areas. In the Sardinian study area, all rivers are consistent with fluvial erosion linearly proportional
to channel slope and approximately proportional to the square root of upstream drainage area. This implies that
a simple, and physically justified, parametrisation of the stream power incision equation can describe fluvial
incision over geological timescales. In Calabria, a unit stream power-based spatial and temporal inversion also
yielded low misfit between observed and modelled longitudinal profiles, and the best-fitting longitudinal profiles
that are consistent with total uplift indicated by marine terrace elevations are produced with catchment area
exponent of 0.65. This calibration predicts the elevation of independently dated Mid–Late Pleistocene marine
terraces within a factor of two. In both locations, inverse modelling suggests temporally varying fault throw
rates, which on Calabria are superimposed with an temporally increasing but spatially similar regional uplift
rate. Fluvial gravels on a drainage divide in the footwall of the Armo fault have a cosmogenic burial age of
78 +25
–22 ka. These gravels were probably part of the weakly incised west draining Valanidi catchment, which has
been partially captured by the rapidly eroding south flowing Melito-Paludi catchment within the last ≈100 kyr.
Gravels within the upper terrace in the footwall of the Cittanova fault have nuclide concentrations consistent
with muogenic production. Numerical modelling shows that these concentrations could have been acquired since
1.2 Ma while continually buried in an uplifting terrace.