Dinaric Alps

Geology

The Dinaric Karst region is built mostly of Mesozoic limestone and dolomite deposited on top of a huge Bahama-type carbonate platform, while a few kilometers thick carbonate successions have been deformed during the Alpine orogenesis. The main tectonic phase of the Alpine orogenesis in the Dinaric Karst region took place in the Cenozoic Era (Paleogene) as a result of the Adriatic microplate (Adria) collision with the Serbo-Macedonian and Rhodope Massifs, and the process is still active. The Mesozoic limestone forms a very distinctive region of the Balkans, notable for features such as the Karst Plateau, which has given its name to all such terrains of limestone eroded by groundwater. The Dinarides are known for being composed of karst – limestone rocks – as is Dinara, the mountain for which they were named. The Quaternary ice ages had relatively little direct geologic influence on the Balkans. No permanent ice caps existed, and there is little evidence of extensive glaciation. Only the highest summits of Durmitor, Orjen and Prenj have glacial valleys and moraines as low as 600 m (1,969 ft). However, in the Accursed Mountains (Serbo-Croatian: Prokletije), a range on the northern Albanian border that runs east to west (thus breaking the general geographic trend of the Dinaric system), there is evidence of major glaciation.

One geological feature of great importance to the present-day landscape of the Dinarides must be considered in more detail: that of the limestone mountains, often with their attendant faulting. They are hard and slow to erode, and often persist as steep jagged escarpments, through which steep-sided gorges and canyons are cleft by the rivers draining the higher slopes. Another is polje, in geological terminology, a large, flat-floored depression within karst limestone, whose long axis develops in parallel with major structural trends and can become several miles (tens of kilometers) long. Superficial deposits tend to accumulate along the floor; drainage may be either by surface watercourses (as an open polje) or by swallow holes (as a closed polje) or ponors. Usually, the ponors cannot transmit entire flood flows, so many poljes become wet-season lakes. The structure of some poljes is related to the geological structure, but others are purely the result of lateral dissolution and planation. The development of poljes is fostered by any blockage in the karst drainage.

The partially submerged western Dinaric Alps form the numerous islands and harbors along the Croatian coast.

Rivers in Dinaric karst

The most extensive example of limestone mountains in Europe are those of the Karst of the Dinaric Alps. Here, all the characteristic features are encountered again and again as one travels through this wild and thinly populated country. Limestone is a very porous rock, yet very hard and resistant to erosion. Water is the most important corrosive force, dissolving the limestone by chemical action of its natural acidity. As it percolates down through cracks in the limestone it opens up fissures and channels, often of considerable depth, so that whole systems of underground drainage develop. During subsequent millennia these work deeper, leaving in their wake enormous waterless caverns, sinkholes and grottoes and forming underground labyrinths of channels and shafts. The roofs of some of these caverns may eventually fall in, to produce great perpendicular-sided gorges, exposing the surface to the water once more.

The Dinaric rivers carved many canyons characteristic for Dinaric Alps, and in particular karst. Among the largest and most well known are the Neretva, the Rakitnica, the Prača, the Drina, the Sutjeska, the Vrbas, the Ugar, the Piva, the Tara, the Komarnica, the Morača, the Cem/Ciijevna, the Lim, and the Drin.

Only along the Dinaric gorges is communication possible across the Karst, and roads and railways tunnel through precipitous cliffs and traverse narrow ledges above roaring torrents. A number of springs and rivers rise in the Dinaric range, including Jadro Spring noted for having been the source of water for Diocletian's Palace at Split. At the same time, the purity of these rocks is such that the rivers are crystal clear, and there is little soil-making residue. Water quality testing of the Jadro River, for example, indicates the low pollutant levels present. Rock faces are often bare of vegetation and glaring white, but what little soil there is may collect in the hollows and support lush lime-tolerant vegetation, or yield narrow strips of cultivation.

Human activity

Ruins of fortresses dot the mountainous landscape, illustrating evidence of centuries of war and the refuge that the Dinaric Alps have provided to various armed forces. During the Roman period, the Dinarides provided shelter to the Illyrians resisting Roman conquest of the Balkans, which began with the conquest of the eastern Adriatic coast in the 3rd century BC. Rome conquered the whole of Illyria in 168 BC, but these mountains sheltered Illyrian resistance forces for many years until the area's complete subjugation by 14 AD. More recently, the Ottoman Empire failed to fully subjugate the mountainous areas of Montenegro. In the 20th century, too, the mountains provided favourable terrain for guerrilla warfare, with Yugoslav Partisans organising the most successful Allied resistance movements of World War II.

The area remains underpopulated, and forestry and mining remain the chief economic activities in the Dinaric Alps. The people of the Dinaric Alps are on record as being the tallest in the world, with an average male adolescent height of 185.6 cm (6 ft 1 in). The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have the highest recorded average of any single country, with 183.9 cm (6 ft 0 in) average for men and 171.8 cm (5 ft 8 in) for women.

Mountain passes

The main mountain passes of the Dinaric Alps are:

• Postojna Gate (Postojnska vrata), Slovenia (606 m or 1,988 ft),
• Vratnik pass, Croatia (700 m or 2,297 ft)
• Debelo brdo, Serbia (1,094 m or 3,589 ft)
• Knin Gate (Kninska vrata), Croatia (about 700 m or 2,297 ft)
• Vaganj, Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina (1,137 m or 3,730 ft)
• Ivan-Saddle (Ivan-sedlo), Bosnia-Herzegovina (967 m or 3,173 ft)
• Kupres Gate (Kupreška vrata), Bosnia-Herzegovina (1,384 m or 4,541 ft)
• Čemerno, Bosnia-Herzegovina (1,329 m or 4,360 ft)
• Crkvine, Montenegro (1,045 m or 3,428 ft)
• Čakor, Montenegro (1,849 m or 6,066 ft)

Tunnels

Major tunnels transversing the Dinaric Alps include:

• Tuhobić Tunnel, Croatia
• Sveti Rok Tunnel, Croatia
• Mala Kapela Tunnel, Croatia
• Sveti Ilija Tunnel, Croatia

Rail lines

The famous Zagreb–Split via Bihać, Sarajevo–Ploče, and Belgrade–Bar railways traverse the mountains.

Mountains and plateaus

The Dinaric Alps are often divided into the Adriatic Platform, the Inner Dinarides and the Outer Dinarides, and sometimes the Supradinaric Nappe. But geologists often differ on which mountains belong to which group.

The mountains and plateaus within the Dinarides are found in the following regions:

Albania

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatia

Italy

Kosovo

Montenegro

Serbia

Slovenia