Review of Miocene shallow marine and lacustrine depositional environments in Northern Croatia

Abstract

The Neogene and Quaternary depositional and structural characteristics of the southwestern Croatian Pannonian Basin System (CPBS) are unique within the Pannonian Basin System (PBS). Due to its position at the basin margin, the area was covered by shallow and partially isolated parts of the Pannonian Sea in the Badenian (Mid Miocene). Later, in the Pannonian and Pontian ages, the area contained several brackish lakes, the largest being Sava Lake and Drava Lake. Tectonic events, sedimentation and depositional mechanisms occurring during the Neogene in the CPBS have revealed that those areas can be considered as former shallow seas or lakes dominated by clastic sedimentation. Marine coarse-grained clastic sedimentation took place during the Badenian, with local sources of material and numerous alluvial fans developed during the first transtensional phase. In the Pannonian and Pontian (Late Miocene), sediments were deposited by turbidity currents from a single, distal material source located in the Eastern Alps during the second transtensional tectonic phase.