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The Alps form part of a Cenozoic orogenic belt of mountain chains, called the Alpide belt, that stretches through southern Europe and Asia from the Atlantic all the way to the Himalayas. This belt of mountain chains was formed during the Alpine orogeny. A gap in these mountain chains in central Europe separates the Alps from the Carpathians to the east. Orogeny took place continuously and tectonic subsidence has produced the gaps in between.
The Dinaric Alps, also Dinarides, are a mountain range in Southern and Southcentral Europe, separating the continental Balkan Peninsula from the Adriatic Sea. They stretch from Italy in the northwest through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo to Albania in the southeast.
Orjen is a transboundary Dinaric Mediterranean limestone mountain range, located between southernmost Bosnia and Herzegovina and southwestern Montenegro.
In geology, a nappe or thrust sheet is a large sheetlike body of rock that has been moved more than 2 km (1.2 mi) or 5 km (3.1 mi) above a thrust fault from its original position. Nappes form in compressional tectonic settings like continental collision zones or on the overriding plate in active subduction zones. Nappes form when a mass of rock is forced over another rock mass, typically on a low angle fault plane. The resulting structure may include large-scale recumbent folds, shearing along the fault plane, imbricate thrust stacks, fensters and klippes.
A tectonic window, or fenster, is a geologic structure formed by erosion or normal faulting on a thrust system. In such a system the rock mass that has been transported by movement along the thrust is called a nappe. When erosion or normal faulting produces a hole in the nappe where the underlying autochthonous rocks crop out this is called a window. Klippen are also a feature near windows.
A foreland basin is a structural basin that develops adjacent and parallel to a mountain belt. Foreland basins form because the immense mass created by crustal thickening associated with the evolution of a mountain belt causes the lithosphere to bend, by a process known as lithospheric flexure. The width and depth of the foreland basin is determined by the flexural rigidity of the underlying lithosphere, and the characteristics of the mountain belt. The foreland basin receives sediment that is eroded off the adjacent mountain belt, filling with thick sedimentary successions that thin away from the mountain belt. Foreland basins represent an endmember basin type, the other being rift basins. Space for sediments is provided by loading and downflexure to form foreland basins, in contrast to rift basins, where accommodation space is generated by lithospheric extension.
The Western Carpathians are an arc-shaped mountain range, the northern branch of the Alpine-Himalayan fold and thrust system called the Alpide belt, which evolved during the Alpine orogeny. In particular, their pre-Cenozoic evolution is very similar to that of the Eastern Alps, and they constitute a transition between the Eastern Alps and the Eastern Carpathians.
The regional geology of Serbia describes the geologic structure and history inside the borders of Serbia.
Topography of Croatia is defined through three major geomorphological parts of the country. Those are the Pannonian Basin, the Dinaric Alps, and the Adriatic Basin. The largest part of Croatia consists of lowlands, with elevations of less than 200 metres above sea level recorded in 53.42% of the country. Bulk of the lowlands are found in the northern regions of the country, especially in Slavonia, itself a part of the Pannonian Basin plain. The plains are interspersed by the horst and graben structures, believed to break the Pannonian Sea surface as islands. The greatest concentration of ground at relatively high elevations is found in Lika and Gorski Kotar areas in the Dinaric Alps, but such areas are found in all regions of Croatia to some extent. The Dinaric Alps contain the highest mountain in Croatia—1,831-metre (6,007 ft) Dinara, as well as all other mountains in Croatia higher than 1,500 metres. Croatia's Adriatic Sea mainland coast is 1,777.3 kilometres long, while its 1,246 islands and islets encompass further 4,058 kilometres of coastline—the most indented coastline in the Mediterranean. Karst topography makes up about half of Croatia and is especially prominent in the Dinaric Alps, as well as throughout the coastal areas and the islands.
The Engadin window or is a tectonic window that exposes penninic units lying below the austroalpine units in the alpine nappe stack. It has a roughly elliptical shape with the long axis striking northwest-southeast and dimensions of 55 x 17 km.
The regional geology of France is commonly divided into the Paris Basin, the Armorican Massif, the Massif Central, the Aquitaine Basin, the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Côte languedocienne, the Sillon rhodanien, the Massif des Vosges, the Massif Ardennais, the Alsace graben and Flanders Basin.
The Split–Karlovac Fault is a major fault line in Croatia. It extends from Split in the south to Karlovac in the north. The faults movements are dextral-transpressive, with the eastern block thrusting towards the west. The fault was active during the Miocene. It runs mostly within the High Karst Unit.
The geology of Germany is heavily influenced by several phases of orogeny in the Paleozoic and the Cenozoic, by sedimentation in shelf seas and epicontinental seas and on plains in the Permian and Mesozoic as well as by the Quaternary glaciations.
Hungary is in the Pannonian Basin in Central Europe, is surrounded by the Carpathians, Alps and Dinarides, but for the most part dominated by lowlands. Sixty-eight percent of the country is lowlands below 200 meters altitude. Hilly terrain covers 30% of the country, while mountains cover only 2%. The entire Pannonian Basin is in the Danube watershed.
The geology of Austria consists of Precambrian rocks and minerals together with younger marine sedimentary rocks uplifted by the Alpine orogeny.
The geology of Croatia has some Precambrian rocks mostly covered by younger sedimentary rocks and deformed or superimposed by tectonic activity.
The geology of Italy includes mountain ranges such as the Alps and the Apennines formed from the uplift of igneous and primarily marine sedimentary rocks all formed since the Paleozoic. Some active volcanoes are located in Insular Italy.
The Budoš Limestone is a geological formation in Montenegro, dating to 180 million years ago, and covering the Toarcian stage of the Jurassic Period. It has been considered an important setting in Balkan paleontology, as it represents a unique terrestrial setting with abundant plant material, one of the few know from the Toarcian of Europe. It is the regional equivalent to the Toarcian units of Spain such as the Turmiel Formation, units like the Azilal Formation of Morocco and others from the Mediterranean such as the Posidonia Beds of Greece and the Marne di Monte Serrone of Italy. In the Adriatic section, this unit is an equivalent of the Calcare di Sogno of north Italy, as well represents almost the same type of ecosystem recovered in the older (Pliensbachian) Rotzo Formation of the Venetian region, know also for its rich floral record.
Stevan Karamata was a Serbian geologist, a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and a professor at the Faculty of Mining and Geology at the University of Belgrade.
The Opuvani do is a sinkhole at the northern slope of the Velika Jastrebica in the Orjen mountain range located in Montenegro. It creates a major refugium to arcto-alpine and alpine biota in a region with warm winters. As the 60 m deep sinkhole is prone to cold-air pooling, frequent freeze-thaw cycles create favourable conditions for periglacially formed features . The sinkhole is at 1584 m elevation and consists of 4 interconnected sinks. The major sink is laterally elongated, 440 m long. The outflow of the cold air is at 1647 m and the depth of the basin atmosphere is 63 m.
References
- 1 2 Schmid, Stefan M.; Bernoulli, Daniel; Fügenschuh, Bernhard; Matenco, Liviu; Schefer, Senecio; Schuster, Ralf; Tischler, Matthias; Ustaszewski, Kamil (24 March 2008). "The Alpine-Carpathian-Dinaridic orogenic system: correlation and evolution of tectonic units" (PDF). Swiss Journal of Geosciences. 101 (1): 139–183. doi:10.1007/s00015-008-1247-3.
- ↑ Ustaszewski, Kamil; Schmid, Stefan M.; Fügenschuh, Bernhard; Tischler, Matthias; Kissling, Eduard; Spakman, Wim (8 November 2008). "A map-view restoration of the Alpine-Carpathian-Dinaridic system for the Early Miocene" (PDF). Swiss Journal of Geosciences. 101 (S1): 273–294. doi:10.1007/s00015-008-1288-7.
- ↑ Korbar, Tvrtko (2009). "Orogenic evolution of the External Dinarides in the NE Adriatic region: A model constrained by tectonostratigraphy of Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene carbonates". Earth-Science Reviews. 96 (4): 296–312. Bibcode:2009ESRv...96..296K. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2009.07.004.
- ↑ Vlahović, Igor; Tišljar, Josip; Velić, Ivo; Matičec, Dubravko (2005). "Evolution of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform: Palaeogeography, main events and depositional dynamics". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 220 (3–4): 333–360. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.01.011.
- ↑ Lóczy, Dénes; Stankoviansky, Miloš; Kotarba, Adam (2012). Recent landform evolution : the Carpatho-Balkan-Dinaric region. Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 978-9400724471.