engleski

Submerged karst in Croatia - dead or alive?

Eastern Adriatic (Croatian) coast, one of the most indented ones and locus typicus of Dalmatian type of coast, is typical submergent (ingressional) coast formed during the last, Late Pleistocene - Holocene transgression, of the order of 125 +- 5 m. Rising sea flooded pre-existing karstified area and its numerous exo- and endokarstic landforms that were formed in tectonically fractured Mesozoic to Early Palaeogene carbonate sediments (limestones and dolomites). Processes of karstification took place downward to the former erosional basis that is, in the case of coastal objects, most often sea level. Prevalence of easily soluble carbonate rocks in the drainage area of most of the rivers on Eastern Adriatic coast resulted with very slow sedimentation rate. Namely, only approximately 20% of river-borne material is suspended and the rest is dissolved, so most of the karstic forms, erosional and depositional (speleological objects with speleothems, dolines, poljes, karrens etc.), can still be recognized at the sea bottom, in spite of the millenniums in the sedimentary environment. Most of them seem to be simply submerged, the others changed their function and in some of them, the process of karstification even continues despite their position under the present sea level.

submerged karst; Croatia; obala

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