Pliocene-Quaternary stratigraphy and sedimentation at the Neretva River Mouth, on Croatian Adriatic Coast

Abstract

The Adriatic Sea is an epicontinental, closed sea, part of the Mediterranean. It formed in the Late Miocene, and ended structurally during the Pliocene and Quaternary, when most of its sediments were deposited. The larger Pliocene and Quaternary depressions occur mostly by the western coast, where the deposits are several thousand metres thick, and were sourced from the Alps and the Apennines. The east coast is characterised by the large and elongated Dinarides Mts., that have continental drainage extremely close to the shoreline and a very small erosional rate. Consequently, eastern inflows were and are very short, including strongly tidal estuaries that erode only small volumes of mostly carbonate detritus, adjacent to frontal islands or mountains, with restricted depositional areas. The Neretva River deposits make up part of the largest contemporary delta system on the eastern Adriatic coast, and have been analysed in this study using three seismic sections and one exploration well. These deposits are recognized inside the Neretva and Korčula channels, assuming that processes operating during Quaternary glacial phases shifted the delta tens of kilometres to the west in the past on several occasions.