The Northeastern Margin of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform

At the end of Pliensbachian or during the Toarcian, several carbonate platforms were individualised by extensional tectonics in southern Tethys, of which the Adriatic Carbonate Platform is one. As a unique and isolated shallow marine depositional system it existed until the end of the Cretaceous. In the Late Lias, the platform margins and slopes were formed by the individualisation processes. Due to the presence of younger sedimentary cover and tectonic disruption from the Early Jurassic until the present, only small parts of the north-eastern margin and its slope are exposed at the surface. During the entire “life-span” of the platform, its NE margin and slope retained more or less the same palaeogeographic position – from western to south-eastern Slovenia, through the central part of Croatia, western and central Bosnia, northern Herzegovina and Montenegro all the way to northern Albania. The region between Zumberak in Croatia and central Bosnia was the most dynamic part of the platform margin during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Shifts of the marginal and slope facies were recorded in Zumberak, where the platform area was progressively reduced during the period from the Lias to the Malm. At the same time, the platform was extended in central Bosnia and Montenegro. A more pronounced reduction of the platform in Cenomanian times marked the beginning of the process of disintegration. The end of the Cretaceous was also the end of the “life” of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. It mostly became emergent, and the renewed shallow marine carbonate depositional environments in the Eocene were short-lived and lacked the previous platform characteristics, as well as the regional distribution and integrity

Palaeogeographic Variability and Depositional Environments of the Upper Jurassic Carbonate Rocks of Velika Kapela Mt. (Gorski Kotar Area, Adriatic Carbonate Platform, Croatia)

Synsedimentary tectonics caused significant differentiation of sedimentary environments of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform during the Kimmeridgian. The most important changes have been recorded in W and central Croatia: along the NW part in present day W Istria there was an emergence with bauxite deposits, while along the NE margin of the platform, in the Karlovac area, a former emerged area was submerged. Penecontemporaneously between these areas, in the wider area of Velika Kapela Mt., a shallow intraplatform trough was formed, characterised by deposition of dark mudstones with nodules and thin layers of cherts and thin interbeds of tuffs in the upper part of the succession. Occurrences of planktonic foraminifera, radiolarians, calcisphaeres and rare ammonites indicate the sporadic influence of the open sea. Along the margins of the trough, peri-reefal environments were established, with flourishing developments of different reef-building organisms – hydrozoans, stromatoporoids, corals and bryozoans. Reefs were continuously destroyed, and in this way derived material was reworked and transported towards the trough slopes. An enormous quantity of this material caused progradation towards the deeper central part of the area, which was gradually infilled and narrowed. In the final phase, the trough was completely infilled, and peri-reefal environments gradually disappeared, since they were covered by ooid bars, culminating in the establishment of shallow environments over the entire area. A similar situation was recorded in another contemporaneous, also tectonically formed environment – the Lemes trough, stretching from the vicinity of Bihac in NW Bosnia towards the south into Croatia, into E Lika and N Dalmatia. This trough had direct communication with the open Tethys realm, and thin-bedded and platy limestones with chert and pelagic organisms, including common ammonites, were deposited within it. The Lemes trough was also surrounded by coral–hydrozoan reefs, and it was infilled by the same depositional processes as the neighbouring trough in the area of Velika Kapela Mt., and finally covered by shallow-water deposits. Although both troughs were probably formed by the same tectonic act, and had approximately the same duration – during the Kimmeridgian and Early Tithonian – they differ according to their palaeogeographic and facies characteristics. The trough investigated in the Velika Kapela Mt. was isolated, surrounded by shallow-marine platform environments, and had only temporary, indirect contact with the open sea. The Lemes trough had a continuous connection with the open sea, as indicated by the relatively rich assemblages of pelagic organisms, especially ammonites, and is characterised by abundant cherts. However, both troughs are characterised by similar depositional sequences: both are underlain and overlain by shallow-water carbonate deposits, and they represent a consequence of a specific depositional event caused by tectonic deformation (formation of pull-apart basins) within the inner part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform

Upper Jurassic (Malm) Shallow-Water Carbonates in the Western Gorski Kotar Area: Facies and Depositional Environments (Western Croatia)

Shallow-water carbonates in the Upper Jurassic of the Gorski Kotar were deposited on a carbonate ramp, in beach-barrier island-lagoonal and peritidal environments. In the continuous sequence, more than 900 m thick, several facies have been found: (A) low-energy shallow-water wackestones/mudstones of the Lower Oxfordian, (B) high-energy shallow-water grainstones of the Middle Oxfordian, (C) low-energy, above the fair-weather wave-base packstones of the uppermost Oxfordian and transition to the Kimmeridgian, (D) shallowing-upward/coarsening-upward units formed through progradation of beach-tidal bars or barriers over the peritidal deposits of the Kimmeridgian and the beginning of the Tithonian and (E) peritidal shallowing-upward units capped by storm tidal deposits of the Tithonian and beginning of the Berriasian. Fossil assemblages adapted to the environmental changes: maximum of their abundance, in the number of the taxa, as well as in the number of individuals, corresponds to the high-energy facies B (Oxfordian), while their minimum corresponds to the peritidal shallowing-upward units of facies E (Tithonian)

Shoreline Cross-bedded Biocalcarenites (Middle Miocene) in the Podvrsko-Snjegavic Area, Mt. Psunj, and their Petroleum Significance (Pozega Subdepression - Eastern Croatia)

The extensively distributed bioclastic sedimentary bodies in the Podvrsko-Snjegavic Area, Mt. Psunj (Pozega Subdepression, Eastern Croatia) are mostly composed of fragments of bryozoans, echinoids, lamellibranchs and corallinaceans. Apart from this, a relatively compositionally uniform, but granulometrically variable bioclastic detritus occurs, which also contains a smaller proportion (5-30%) of siliciclastic grains of medium to coarse sand, as well as sporadic pebbles up to 60 mm in diameter. These sediments are characterised by remarkably large-scale cross-bedding with erosional surfaces clearly delimiting the sets. They are interpreted as shallow-marine shoreface subaqueous dunes, sand bars and barriers formed on the nearshore - mainly shoreface area during the Late Badenian in a high-energy depositional cycle with strong synsedimentary tectonics. With regard to the petroleum-geological reservoir characteristics, the described Middle Miocene cross-bedded biocalcarenites are compared with numerous large oil and gas pools globally, and in other localities in Croatia on the margins of inselberg massifs between the Drava and Sava rivers and south of the Sava river

Carbonate Platform Megafacies of the Jurassic and Cretaceous Deposits of the Karst Dinarides

Platform carbonate deposits of the Karst Dinarides area have a stratigraphic range from the Middle Triassic (or even Carboniferous in some places) to the Middle Eocene, forming a belt nearly 700 km long and, (after reduction by younger tectonics) 80–210 km wide. Besides their significant thickness (4500 to 8000 m) they are characterised by frequent lateral and vertical alternations of different facies, mostly associated with shallow marine environments. Environments ranging from peritidal through low-energy shallow subtidal–lagoons, restricted inner platform shallows, high-energy tidal bars, beach and shoreface to reefal–perireefal predominate, but there are also carbonate slope deposits and those representing temporarily drowned platform facies and intraplatform troughs. The Jurassic to Cretaceous part of this carbonate succession has been subdivided into 19 megafacies units (9 for the Jurassic and 10 for the Cretaceous), the majority of which represent an inner part of the ancient Adriatic Carbonate Platform. Marginal parts of the platform are mostly buried, either by the recent Adriatic Sea along the SW margin, or younger deposits along the NE margin; at some localities such Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits are represented by debrites and/or carbonate turbidites. An additional short review of the overlying Uppermost Cretaceous and Palaeogene deposits (4 megafacies units) enabled a better insight into the post-platform evolution. The very complex vertical and lateral alternation of different megafacies units, including emerged areas which were observed throughout the studied sequence in different parts of the Karst Dinarides, indicate the significant palaeogeographic dynamics of the region. This variability resulted from interaction of the global eustatic signal and local factors, including extensive organic production on the carbonate platform and synsedimentary tectonics controlled by the specific palaeogeographic position of the platform during its geological history

The Karst Dinarides are Composed of Relics of a Single Mesozoic Platform: Facts and Consequences

Croatian geological literature during the mid nineteen-eighties and nineties was marked by the appearance of a new geotectonic concept of the Dinarides proposing that the recent, very complex structural setting is a direct consequence of a specific palaeogeographic relationship during the Mesozoic, i.e. the proposed existence of two carbonate platforms separated by a long-lasting deep marine area (interplatform trough). Although the idea was very interesting and provoked discussion, resulting in the questioning of formerly established concepts, detailed analysis of available data indicate that the Karst Dinarides (External Dinarides) were formed by the destruction of a single, although morphologically considerably variable shallow water carbonate platform. This platform was in some periods very dynamic because of its palaeogeographic position during the Mesozoic, resulting in many periods of large-scale facies differentiation, especially during the Late Cretaceous. The final disintegration of the platform area culminated in the formation of flysch trough(s) in the latest Cretaceous and Palaeogene and the subsequent uplift of the Dinarides. Recently there have been some misunderstandings resulting from the imprecise use of newly established terms, which are, by circular logic, used to connect recent geotectonic relationships with Mesozoic palaeogeography without adequate material proof. Therefore, the terms Dinaricum and Adriaticum should be redefined and used only for description of the recent tectonic pattern, without implying a palaeogeographic component, since during the Mesozoic they represented a single entity. Additional confusion is added by different names used for the same shallow water carbonate platform. Probably the best, although not the ideal name is the most frequently used one: the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. Its duration may be estimated from the Late Lias to the Late Cretaceous, representing the most important part of a thick carbonate succession in the Karst Dinarides (ranging from Carboniferous to Eocene)

The Karst Dinarides are Composed of Relics of a Single Mesozoic Platform: Facts and Consequences

Croatian geological literature during the mid nineteen-eighties and nineties was marked by the appearance of a new geotectonic concept of the Dinarides proposing that the recent, very complex structural setting is a direct consequence of a specific palaeogeographic relationship during the Mesozoic, i.e. the proposed existence of two carbonate platforms separated by a long-lasting deep marine area (interplatform trough). Although the idea was very interesting and provoked discussion, resulting in the questioning of formerly established concepts, detailed analysis of available data indicate that the Karst Dinarides (External Dinarides) were formed by the destruction of a single, although morphologically considerably variable shallow water carbonate platform. This platform was in some periods very dynamic because of its palaeogeographic position during the Mesozoic, resulting in many periods of large-scale facies differentiation, especially during the Late Cretaceous. The final disintegration of the platform area culminated in the formation of flysch trough(s) in the latest Cretaceous and Palaeogene and the subsequent uplift of the Dinarides. Recently there have been some misunderstandings resulting from the imprecise use of newly established terms, which are, by circular logic, used to connect recent geotectonic relationships with Mesozoic palaeogeography without adequate material proof. Therefore, the terms Dinaricum and Adriaticum should be redefined and used only for description of the recent tectonic pattern, without implying a palaeogeographic component, since during the Mesozoic they represented a single entity. Additional confusion is added by different names used for the same shallow water carbonate platform. Probably the best, although not the ideal name is the most frequently used one: the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. Its duration may be estimated from the Late Lias to the Late Cretaceous, representing the most important part of a thick carbonate succession in the Karst Dinarides (ranging from Carboniferous to Eocene)