Where is the dinaric alps in ancient greece

Now we are in contact-area of geologically younger Dinaric Alps and older Rhodope mountain system. All the coast and islands of eastern Adriatic belong to Dinaric system, except two tiny islands in Dalmatia Croatia , Jabuka and Brusnik which are volcanic by origin.

Another exception is western half of Istria peninsula in Croatia and Slovenia which differs in geological origin from Dinaric system.

Overall, the main Alpine chains of Europe resulted from the subduction of Tethyan oceanic crust followed by a continent-continent collision between African and European lithospheric plates. The Alpine orogenesys was very complex and occurred in several phases from the middle Cretaceous to the Neogene, of which the collision between Europe and Africa was only one.

Much of the earlier deformation in the Alps has been replaced by the later mountain building in the Tertiary. So it was the same with Dinaric Alps.

The tectonic activity is still present in the area and earthquakes are relatively common features, especially along fault lines. Dinaric Alps lack in ores minerals. The exemptions are mountains in Central and Northern Bosnia and some other isolated regions, where some of the mountains are not made of limestone alone, but of other or older rocks.

The climate was warm and the sea-level rose; cretaceous limestone is limestone laid down during Cretaceous period. Quaternary , the last of the geological periods, c. Out of all natural characteristics of Dinaric Alps mountain chain, the most important and the most known is the karst also known as Dinaric karst.

Karst is a type of relief with formed hydrographic and geomorphological shapes and structures, created by water penetrating into soluble rocks as are dolomite, gypsium and especially the limestone. Karstic action is very much present in Dinaric areas that are chiefly composed of limestone. The most of the rocks in the Dinaric Mountains are late Paleozoic and Mesozoic limestones and dolomites. The rest of the Chain is characterized by clastic flysch-like sediments interbedded occasionally with limestone layers.

Limestone in this area comes from the former Tethys sea placed here milion years ago from which more vast plates arised later, including the Adriatic and Dinaric plates. Marine organism previously deposited on ocean flors, the secretions, shells or skeletons of plants and animals had already formed a layer that was now risen to heights of Dinaric Alps. Dinaric karst area is larger than a half of the surface of all Dinarics. The Dinaric mountain regions, already difficult to access, are even more inhospitable thanks to this intensive karstic action.

This natural characteristic is one of the main reasons for depopulation of this area and its economic decay, over decades and centuries. In spite of high rainfall averages in many karstic areas in the Dinarics, the coastal side of the chain has few surface watercourses, because the rainwater quickly sinks underground into the crevices and cavities in the limestone. The more you move inland and to higher grounds the rainfall levels are still high and that supports the forming of dense forest covers in Notranjska area of Slovenia, Gorski kotar area of Croatia, northern parts of Western Bosnia.

Still further inland the limestone areas are less frequent. Locally, there are karstic areas even in Central and SE parts of the Chain, but they give place to other less-porous rocks schists, grey-wackes, serpentines and crystalline rocks , which hold up surface flows and huge expanses of forests and other vegetation. This kind of karst is called covered , or green karst , because karstic processes are still taking place under the surface mantle of vegetation and humus-soil.

Closer to the coast the bare karst predominates. Here the forests were felled many centuries ago to provide the large quantities of timber required by the coastal towns and villages for shipbuilding and domestic consumption.

Some of the largest quantities of timber were taken to Venice, Italy for millions of wooded pylons that hold basements of buildings in this "floating" city. After this deforestation the unprotected topsoil was washed away and the bare white limestone exposed, leaving the barren but magnificent landscape of the bare karst.

This areas of bare karst are clearly seen from the Space as white spaces especially the island of Pag, Dalmatian hinterland, lower Herzegovina and Montenegrin hinterland contrasting to other wooded areas of Dinarics. As mentioned previously, the Karst got its name after Kras region in Slovenia and Italy Italian Carso , a desolate stony and waterless region situated inland from Trieste.

The processes of karst formation were first studied by geologists and geographers in this area and the adjective "karstic" has become a general term applied to any area where such processes have been at work areas in Slovakia, China, USA etc. The word is of indo-european origin kar meaning stone. Other terminology of the karst topography, such as doline, uvala, and polje, also originated in Dinaric karst area.

Karst develops after dissolving of limestone in water, which contains carbon dioxide CO2. This is generally a result of mildly acidic rainfall acting on soluble limestone.

The rain picks up CO2 which dissolves in the water when passing through the atmosphere. Over time these fractures enlarge as the bedrock continues to dissolve. Openings in the rock increase in size, and an underground drainage system begins to develop, allowing more water to pass through and accelerating the formation of karst features.

This whole process is called the karstification. The process of karstification results in a topography with distinctive features and varieties, and overall the Dinaric Mountain region abounds in literally hundreds of examples of karstic landforms including sinkholes, doline s , uvale s , polja fields , karst plains, dry valleys, karren kamenice , pits, swallow holes ponori , vertical shafts, disappearing streams, and springs.

After sufficient time of water-action, complex underground drainage systems and extensive caves and cavern systems may form the most of them with again deposited calcium carbonate in forms of stalactites and stalagmites. The roof of such subterranean cavities may collapse, forming funnel-shaped holes in the ground; the sides of these holes are then gradually levelled down, and a soil is carried into them by the heavy rain. These are the characteristic karstic features known as dolina doline, plural or swallowholes - conical depressions, usually ranging in diameter between 10 and ft cca 30 to ft , with their floors lying 30, 60 or even more feet below the surrounding ground level.

Smaller dolines can also be formed at the intersection of enlarged clefts. In many areas in the karstic upland region for example on Velebit and Orjen one doline comes up against another, with only a narrow ridge between them; and when the intervening ridges in time disappear the dolines coalesce into a larger feature known as an uvala.

Still larger depressions, surrounded on all sides by hills, are called polje polja, plural. These very typical karstic features have usually very flat floors covered with alluvial deposits of fertile terra rossa. Polja fields are agriculturally important because they are basins of good soil in this otherwise barren upland region. At the edges of many poljes, set at an angle to the floor of the depression, underground rivers emerge, they flow through the polje and disappear again into a hole at the other end.

Frequently, however, these holes - ponori ponor, sing. In some fields this flooding can last for several months. They are usually dry again by the beginning of summer, but if the autumn rains come early they may again be flooded in late summer, which produces lots of problems for people farming this small and maybe, the only parches of arable land. The villages and hamlets in which they live avoid the floor of the polje and stay out of reach of the water on the arid slopes around its edges which are not suitable for cultivation.

The water which sinks into the ground in the karstic uplands finds its way to another polje and lower laying land or the sea through underground channels. One of the largest such system is Pivka river system in Notranjska region of Slovenia, with more such subterranean "tunnel valleys" - one of them the famous Postojna Caves other such rivers are river Lika in Croatia, Buna in Herzegovina, Reka river in Slovenia. After their disappearance into a ponor many rivers re-emerge again in the form of karstic springs on the coast or even under the sea vrulja spring.

Along the the eastern Adriatic coast between Rijeka and Kotor Bay Boka kotorska only few rivers reach the sea in deeply, steep-sided canyons Zrmanja , Krka Dalmatian , Cetina and Neretva rivers. A normal surface drainage system develop in the areas of less permeable clays and marls which occur here and there in the limestone region, but as soon as the rivers reach limestone territory they disappear underground like the others. Little help - Basic Terms on Karst: calcite , main constituent of limestone rocks dolina , this is a local South-Slavic and also a scientific term for valley; also a depression in the surface of limestone formed by running water dissolving the rock carrying soluble calcium carbonate away and leaving insoluble material as a clay-like deposit.

Sink-holes or swallow-holes are smaller, and polje larger similar phenomena. The name derives from the Karst regions limestone , sedimentary rock, consisting mainly of mineral calcite calcium carbonates , usually of marine organism deposited on ocean flors, the secretions, shells or skeletons of plants and animals. It makes up approximately 10 percent of the total volume of all sedimentary rocks.

Because of impurities, such as clay, sand, organic remains, iron oxide and other materials, many limestones exhibit different colors, especially on weathered surfaces. This produces speleothems such as stalagmites and stalactites. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the water leaves a solution that is supersaturated with chemical constituents of calcite.

Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls. Underground they may be interconnected by, frequently water-filled passages Sources used on Karst chapter: Encycl. Climate The mountains of the Dinaric Alps are under influence of three basics types of climate. The heights of the narrow coastal belt and the islands of the Adriatic are under influence of Mediterranean climate with hot dry summers and mild rainy winters.

But higher and the highest mountains in the coastal area have more complex climate. Sunny slopes of those ranges are very hot in summer. Also, warm humid air that comes from the sea, very often crashes with colder air above those mountains, so the higher areas can have a lots of snow in winter and overall, the first rows of high ranges into hinterland Orjen, Velebit, Gorski kotar , receive a huge amount of precipitation - yearly averages some of the highest in Europe are between mm of precipitation Crkvice on mt.

Orjen have an average of mm, the absolute maximum in Europe. High mountains of Maritime zone and parts of the Highest Dinaric Alps are strong barrier for Mediterranean influences to penetrate further inland. On some places on the coast the influence of the Mediterranean climate is restricted to just few kms into inland, or less, because of the height of coastal mountain barrier - Velebit mountain, especially. In other areas, like river valleys Neretva, Zeta or lower mountain passes, warmer Mediterranean air penetrates further inland, away from the coast, and reaches the first rows of mountains in the Central Dinaric Belt.

The best example is relatively warmer climate of Lower Herzegovina all the way to the city of Mostar some 40 km away from the coast and the warm Mediterranean and cold Mountain and Continental climates crash very often over the mountains of High Herzegovina, north of Mostar like Prenj mt. The most of the Dinaric Alps area has classical mountainous or Alpine climate with large rainfalls, short and cool summers and long winters with abundant snowfalls.

In winter time the cold air descends from surrounding mountains into lower laying mountain fields and valleys. Those areas have lower winter temperatures than the mountains surrounding them. In summer-time the process is reverse, the bottom parts and the slopes warm up much faster than surrounding mountains. Mountains on the northern edge of the Dinaric Alps and the lower laying areas of the North-Eastern chain have a mixture of mountain and continental climates of Central-European or Balkan types , sometimes this climate is called moderate-continental and mountainous.

Those areas have warm summers but also cold winters. Dinaric Alps abound in different morphological structures. Although they all make one unique chain and share other similarities, by traveling from NW to SE throughout Dinaric Alps you could witness lots of varieties among the mountains and groups. People from one side of the mountain have different names and different group structuring, than those from the other side.

The same morphological massif was divided by historical state or national borders and through history two separated parts got different names, while no common name exists today. Most of the times no single name exist for some mountain massifs but instead of it people gave the name after the region where they are situated f. Although, to group mountains in Dinaric Alps according to the state where they are situated, could be the easiest way to do it, in many cases political borders would limit the perception of a mountain and a group as a whole.

Because of this, my intention was to try to structure the Dinaric Alps by obeying both natural and cultural tradition, trying to achieve the most logical results. There are more than lakes throughout the Chain. They are of karstic, tectonic, glacial, travertine, fluviokarstic, or fluvial origin, and also the artificial ones, but the most of them are much smaller than 10 sq. If erosion is combined with tectonic sinking, those lakes are known as karstic-tectonic, such is Scutari lake Skadarsko jezero.

A type of karstic lakes are also periodically flooded areas of some karstic fields such are: Cerknica field Cerknisko polje , Popovo field Popovo polje , Livno field Livanjsko polje , Kosinj field Kosinjsko polje and others. They are mostly of smaller size but very attractive so many people call them "mountain eyes" 18 such lakes are on Durmitor , 6 on Bjelasica.

There are also some lakes of glacial origin situated at the foothills of high mountains, where the water was dammed by the sediments drifted here by the glaciers. Such lakes are Plav lake Plavsko jezero , Biograd lake Biogradsko jezero. Table 5. In work! Conservation and Management of wolves in Croatia A lots of information on Dinaric wolves population with many brochures in English and in Croatian - for download.

Link to older English site and newer always updated, in Croatian Large Carnivores in Slovenia Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning - Large Carnivores in Slovenia brown bear, wolf, lynx The brown bear conservation and management in Slovenia - pdf. Plitvice NP Link Croatia Northern Velebit National Park Numerous karst phenomena and caving objects - deep pits, karrens, sinkholes; preserved forest communities; high biological diversity, plenty of endemic species; landscape diversity - picturesque valleys, pastures, rocks, screes; remains of traditional architecture - old summer lodgings Specially protected areas: strict reserve Hajducki i Rozanski kukovi, special botanical reserves: Visibaba, Zavizan-Balinovac-Velika kosa with Velebit botanical garden.

Northern Velebit NP Sjeverni Velebit NP Link Croatia Paklenica National Park Canyons of Velika and Mala Paklenica have plenty of geological, hydrological, karst, floristic and faunal characteristics; rich flora - about species 40 endemic ; diverse and rich fauna - especially important is the presence of the griffon vultures; rich cultural heritage - indigenous architecture, water mills, felting mill, archaeological locality Paklaric; most famous Croatian climbing area for climbers and alpinists.

It extend over the areas of the Upper Una river flow and its river gorge, lower Unac river flow with its river gorge and area between Una nad Unac rivers Bosnia and Herzegovina Sutjeska National Park NP attractions are Sutjeska river gorge, undisturbed valleys, thick mixed woods, mountain pastures, high karst formations, high mountain massifs Maglic, Zelengora, Volujak, Vucevo , more glacier lakes, well known strictly protected Perucica a primeval forest of unique beauty and the biggest preserved primeval forest in Europe; Skakavac waterfall in Perucica; fauna and flora, including lots of endemics; historical significance of the place.

Forest covered hills, lakes and streams. Orohidrographic area; source of more crystal clear rivers as well as numerous springs. From Mrakovica with its central position in NP more valleys, mountain slopes and ranges decorated with meadows, in all directions.

Historic importance. Activities: walking, observation of wild life. Magnificent scenery; glacial feautures, lakes and valleys; morphological features - mountain ranges and summits rising from high karstic plateaus, deep river canyons; endemic flora and fauna, primeval forests more than years old, 50 m high trees spruce, fir, dark-pine, beech ; speleological objects, caves, chasms, holes; tourism: mountaineering, speleology. Glacial features, lakes, moraines. Biogradska gora a primeval forest and strictly protected reserve.

Close to Tara and Lim rivers. Skadarsko jezero NP Link Montenegro Lovcen National Park Biodiversity, rare and endemic species; rocky ground, karstic and oromediterranean vegetation; forest reserves maritime beech-tree ; cultural heritage.

Lovcen NP Link Montenegro Tara National Park Protected countryside of Tara mountain do not mix it with Tara river in Montenegro , river valleys and canyons, waterfalls, caves and other karstic features, mixed wooded areas, primeval forests, rare plant and animal species; protected Pancic pine-tree areal.

Waterfall of Grunasi natural monument Variety of habitats and vegetation. Area of lynx-lynx with about 50 principals specie. It expands among high mountains; fantastic colors in every season, valley full of labyrinths and surprises. Its scientific, tourist and health recovering values; bio-diversity of national and international importance. Rocky and attractive peaks, the sides covered with wood, the flow of brooks and river Valbona.

Tourism, fishing, relaxation, amusing and mountain climbing as well as winter sports. In the inner part of the Park lots of grottos and caves the most eminent Cave of Dragobia, with historical importance, too.

Albania Krka National Park Preserved and insignificantly altered ecosystem; the area of square kilometers along the Krka River; famous for its travertine waterfals and cascades, and the river canyon overall is a natural and karstic phenomenon.

Protection of an original ecosystem in the Adriatic. Unique panoramic landscape of well intended coastline, cliffs, reefs and numerous islands, and rich topography of the nearby hills, which rise steeply above the sea and hide numerous ancient stone villages. Outer coastline exposed to the south sea and therefore steep and full of "garmas" collapsed caves.

The salt lakes are a unique geological and oceanographic phenomenon. The Mediterranean karst landscape hides two natural specialties - typical karst underground habitats: half-caves, caves and pits and brackish lakes, which vanish from time to time.

Beautiful, rich forests. Cultural heritage. Mljet NP Link Croatia Kornati National Park In the central part of croatian Adriatic Sea, about 15 Nm to the west from Sibenik town, or 15 Nm to the south from Zadar town; amazing group of islands named Kornati archipelago; 89 islands, islets and reefs within the NP; the most indented group of islands in the Mediterranean.

Exceptionally rich flora and fauna. The land section of the Park; app. Hiking: numerous hilltop view locations; interesting geological and geo-morphological phenomena seen from the hilltops. Longest mountain of the Dinaric range - km; karst phenomena - barren rocks of different shapes, canyons, valleys, caves and pits; hydrogeological phenomena - karst rivers with travertine barriers, underground flows which emerge in the sea as submarine springs; landscape diversity - alteration of barren limestone rocks with beech, fir and spruce forests; biological diversity - plant species, numerous endemic species of flora and fauna, particularly in the underground and waters Specially protected areas: 2 national parks: Paklenica and Sjeverni Velebit, protected landscape Zavratnica, geomorphologic nature monuments: Cerovacke pecine and Modric cave, palaeontological nature monument Velnicka glavica, special forest reserve Stirovaca - virgin forests of beech and fir.

Golija-Studenica Biosphere Reserve is situated in southwestern Serbia and belongs to the inner zone of the Dinaric mountain system. South Slavs are generally tall males with haplotypes of the Dinaric Alps are the tallest ethnic group on Earth and darker than our Eastern Slavic ancestors. The Gravettian culture was indeed tall for the times — males averaged almost six feet in stature, while other ancient people averaged around five feet tall for males and four feet for females.

The enhanced stature could be caused by an abundance of dietary protein from the large game they ate. Physically the Montenegrins are the world tallest people, with an average height for males of nearly cm and a female average height of cm!!

Montenegrin people are South Slavs who are primarily associated with Montenegro. The matter of Montenegrin nationhood is a controversial issue, primarily among the Serbs.

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