Mini Blog - 2

Coastal and Karst Landscapes

Croatia occupies most of the Eastern Adriatic Sea with over 1,100 miles of coastline. Most of this coastline is made up of folded rock formations descending straight to the sea and forming high plunging cliffs or low-lying limestone. (Kennedy, 105) The Northern coastline is more dominated by the limestone formations. This rough coastal landscape is broken up periodically with portions of beaches that are either sandy or rocky with little pebbles and were created by currents. These beaches are considered the back shore of the littoral zone during a low tide. 

The waves of the sea are constantly eroding the rocky cliffs. They are mostly gentile spilling breaker waves. 

This photo shows evidence of coastal straightening along the coast of Slanica Island, Croatia. The bay of sand is surrounded by the tall limestone headlands. 

Image 1: Coastal straightening. 

This is an example of a notched cliff which forms part of the wall of Dubrovnik. 

Image 2: Notched cliff. 

Here's an example of a sea arch on Lopud Island, Croatia. 

Image 3: Sea Arch.

Here's a cave called Brbiscica in Dugi Otok, Croatia. 

Image 4: Sea Cave Brbiscia. 

The Istrian Peninsula in the north has the steepest part of the coastline and is periodically broken up by inlets where there are drowned valleys. (Kennedy, 106).

All along the coast, there is a submerged notch. Notches are best formed in limestone (Juracic, 21). Notches develop parallel to the sea level by a combination of physical and biological abrasion and by chemical and biological dissolution. (Juracic, 22) Here is an example of one formed in the Cretaceous rudist limestones on the northeastern coast of Rijeka Bay.

Image 5: Tidal notch in Rijeka Bay. 

Back in 2008, University of Arizona professor, Richard Bennett, lead a research team involving Croatian geologists to discover a new fault in the region (UA). This fault is actively building more islands and mountains. Bennett said, "the leading edge of the Eurasian plate is scraping and sliding its way over a former piece of the African plate called the South Adria microplate"(UA). This would be an example of a convergent plate boundary. This fault runs for about 124 miles under the sea floor and heads in a northwest direction.

Map 1: Convergent plate boundary in Croatia.

References

Dr. Casey D. Allen, Associate Professor, Department of Geography & Environmental Sciences, 

     University of  Colorado Denver. Geographic Concepts such as littoral zone, headlands, back 

     shore, spilling breaker waves, notched cliff, and convergent plate boundary. These come from 

     lectures on " Coastal Landscapes," and "Plate Tectonics."

Jensen, Mari N., "Newly Discovered Active Fault Building New Islands Off Croatian Coast,"
     University of Arizona News, UAnews, 22 Jan., 2008, Web. 23 March, 2017.
https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/newly-discovered-active-fault-building-new-islands-croatian-coast

Juracic, Mladen, Cedomir Benac, and Tatjana Bakran-Petricioli, "Submerged tidal notches in the
     Rijeka Bay NE Adriatic Sea," Marine Geology, International Journal of Marine Geology,
     Geochemistry and Geophysics. 20 July, 2004. Web. 25, 2017. PDF.
     http://rgn.hr/~bruntom/nids_bruntom/PDF%20Strukturna%20geomorfologija/Benac%20et%20al-
     MGeol-2004.pdf

Kennedy, D.M., W.J. Stephenson, and L.A.. Naylor, "Rock Coast Geomorphology: A Global   

      Synthesis," The Geological Society. The Geological Society, Memoir No. 40. 2014, Web 22, 

      2017. 

     https://books.google.com/books?     

     id=iIROBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=croatia&f=false

Image References

Image 1: Pero. Dalmatia Nudist Beaches. n.a. Photograph. Split Croatia Travel Guide. Web. 27 Mar.

     2017. photo: http://split.gg/dalmatia-nudist-beaches/

Image 2: Lorentz, Mario. May 2017. Photograph. I took this photo.

Image 3: Trip Advisor, Islands of Sipan. 12 July. 2016. Photograph. Trip Advisor. Web. 26 Mar.
      2017. Photo: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g295371-d4371037-i98910860-Outdoor_Croatia_Sea_Kayaking-Dubrovnik_Dubrovnik_Neretva_County_Dalmatia.html

Image 4: Dugi Otok Tourist board. Cave Brbiscica. Photograph. Pinterest. n.a. Web. 25, Mar. 2017.
      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/292452569523018944/

Image 5: Frka, D. Rijeka Bay Notch. Sept. 1998. Photograph. Marine Geology 212 (2004), page 31.
     Web. 26, 2017. PDF.  
      http://rgn.hr/~bruntom/nids_bruntom/PDF%20Strukturna%20geomorfologija/Benac%20et%20al-
     MGeol-2004.pdf

Map 1: Tectonic Map, Mediterranean. Go Hvar. Gohvarblog.com. 26 Nov. 2012. Web. 1 Arpil, 2017. 

     https://gohvarblog.com/2012/11/26/the-adriatic-on-a-plate/