The Need to Value and Protect Coastal and Insular Karst of the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

Karst denominates a terrain with specific hydrogeological and geomorphological features which emanate in soluble rocks. It represents a resource of global-level significance owing to exceptional geodiversity and biodiversity abundance and the water it holds. Karst landscape is an active laboratory of quite simple but endless chemical processes. It was a huge area in a warm tropical Thetys ocean where minute shells of marine organisms accumulated for millions of years, while pressure of seawater column and own weight pressed them into compact rock. Together with Gondwana they travelled from the Equator northwards, to their present location and thus participated in forming of present architecture of continents. In the area of present-day Dinaric karst, they collide with other big continental plates and deform. Focusing on the Dinaric system (Dinarides), it represents a geologically heterogeneous, south European orogenic belt of the Alpine mountain chain and is considered as a classic karst region worldwide. The main orientation of the Dinaric system is NW-SE, parallel to the Adriatic Sea.