engleski

Geopark Rab Island, Croatia - aspiring member of the Geopark community

The Croatian new Geopark Rab Island is in process of development. The area includes Rab Island of 93, 6 km2, and two small islands - Grgur and Goli. Only Rab is populated with nearly 10000 inhabitants. During the summer season around 25000 tourists enlarge the population. The Rab Island, once a part of the mainland, has been visited by prehistorical people as documented by artifacts found around Lopar. Today, the Island of Rab is part of Primorsko-Goranska County and has two municipalities, Rab and Lopar, with local administration and city mayor. Geographically, the Island of Rab is located in Northern Adriatic Sea, as part of inner belt of Kvarner islands, divided from the mainland by the Velebit Channel. Besides the rich history and cultural heritage, as well as the long touristic tradition and developing economy, the geological diversity of the island makes the fundament of the geopark. Its geology is in many ways specific for the Mediterranean region, and wider. The quality of exposures, and unique stratigraphy of Pelogene clastics require protection and obtain high quality education for geologist of various specialities, as for example the Lopar peninsula which allows almost 3-D insight into the architecture of tidal sandstone bodies within a paleoestuary and has already been the training area for study of clastic sequence stratigraphy. The Kamenjak anticline built of Cretaceous limestones hosts the Fruga valley which is characterized by a thick sequence of Quaternary deposits. Nearly a hundred freshwater springs are part of very interesting hydrogeology of the island. Aiming to show and explain such an interesting geology, and protect the Rab's geoheritage, over one hundred geosites have been studied and selected for geostops along existing touristic trails. By September 2007 two geotrails were established with 25 geostops marked by explanation plates in four languages. The Lopar geogarden is in preparation for the summer 2008.

geopark; geoheritage; geotourism; cultural heritage; sustainable development

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