The study presented in this work emerged as a result of a multiyear regional geochemical survey based on lowdensity topsoil sampling and the ensuing geochemical atlas of Croatia. This study focuses on the Dinaric part of Croatia to expound the underlying mechanisms controlling the mobilities and variations in distribution of potentially harmful elements as observed from different environmental angles. Although serious environmental degradation of the vulnerable karst soil landscapes was expected to occur chiefly through the accumulation of various heavy metals, the most acute threat materialized through the soil acidification (Al-toxicity) affecting the entire Dinaric karst area. This picture surfaced from the analysis of all three investigated discriminant function models employing the abovementioned environmental criteria selected autonomously with respect to the evaluated soil geochemistry, namely, geologic setting, regional placement and land use. These models are presented by not only the characteristic discriminant-function diagrams but also a set of appropriate mathematically derived geochemical maps disclosing the allocations of potential threats to the karst soil landscapes posed by soil acidity.
The evaporite deposits examined in this study are located in the central part of middle Dalmatia, Croatia. In this region, Upper Permian evaporite sediments were deposited under favourable conditions onto the Variscan basement around the northern margins of Gondwana. These sediments can be subdivided into three members, a lower evaporite unit (an anhydrite member), a middle evaporite unit (a gypsum member), and an upper unit (a clastic member), and are mainly comprised of secondary gypsum that formed via the hydration of precursor anhydrite rocks. The middle evaporite unit comprises beds of gypsum as well as early diagenetic dolomites that contain gypsum sequences, extending up to 60 m maximum thickness, and overlying clastic sequences that themselves are up to 20 m thick. These Upper Permian evaporite sediments contain horizontal, irregular, gypsum lithofacies that exhibit pronounced enterolithic and boudinage structures. The characteristics of these sediments are indicative of deposition in supratidal and sabkha settings (i.e., early diagenetic dolomites and evaporites) within a shallow epicontinental marine environment with highly varied coastlines, bays, and lagoons. The secondary gypsum seen within this Upper Permian middle evaporite unit displays alabastrine and porphyroblastic secondary textures and includes corroded anhydrite relics; associated minerals include muscovite, chlorite, potassium (K)-feldspar, quartz, and amphibole. The Upper Permian evaporite sediments discussed in this study are composed of irregular, locally brecciated secondary gypsum that probably formed as a result of multiple synsedimentary collapse of pre-existing soluble minerals and/or synsedimentary and post-sedimentary tectonics.
<p>Ornamental stone is today a raw material produced with great skills all over Europe, SME's and larger enterprises exploiting the vast diversity of European ornamental stone resources. Today's European stone industry is not only large and important but also highly dispersed throughout Europe, making a backbone industry for particularly rural areas. In Italy alone, there are more than 1000 stone quarrying enterprises and the sector in total employed more than 50 000 in 2011. Ornamental stone has contributed significantly in shaping our rural and urban landscapes, through its use in our built heritage from different historical periods. Yet, the actual use of local and regional stone resources in Europe is under threat due to sterilization of resources by urbanisation, infrastructure development and other land uses. Consequently, important resources are &#8220;unknowingly&#8221; lost for future production, and so are vital geological knowledge and skills for producing them. Loss of such resources will not only make it more difficult to maintain and restore our architectural heritage, but also prevent the use of traditional materials in the future.</p><p>The motivation behind the EuroLithos project, as a part of the GeoERA partnership, was to reverse this gradual process of loss, by providing a European scale knowledge base for ornamental stone resources; their spatial occurrence and distribution, their technical properties and quality, as well as providing guidelines for how to assess economic and non-economic values.</p><p>A major challenge in the project is to collect data from many national repositories and display them in a harmonised way. The spatial extent of ornamental stone resources can basically be measured by the spatial distribution of the geological units containing the valuable quarries and future resources of same quality. Another challenge is how to link geological units with ornamental stone commodities of the INSPIRE standard, and a third is how to collect and display technical information about ornamental stone and how to link that to the spatial data. So far, EuroLithos has provided agreement among 15 partners in 14 countries on how to meet these challenges, and guidelines on how to deliver data according to this agreement. Ongoing, 12 case studies across Europe covering different aspects of resource valorisation are currently running. Eurolithos will be running until July 2021, and more results can be viewed at www.eurolithos.org.</p>
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