Scarce basin remnants of Cretaceous synorogenic sediments exposed in the Medvednica, Ivanščica, Žumberak Mts. and Samobor Hills of northern Croatia record the early orogenic history of the NW Dinarides. The provenance of sandstones from five clastic formations (Oštrc, Bistra, Kravljak, Vivodina and Glog) which cover a time span from Early to late Late Cretaceous was studied by combining petrography, whole-rock geochemistry, heavy mineral chemistry and detrital zircon fission track dating. These sediments record at least two major regional thermotectonic events which correlate well with those affecting both the Alps and the Tisza-Dacia unit to the north and east, and the central Dinaride region to the south. Short zircon fission track lag times in Barremian to Albian sediments indicate that continental fragments of the distal Adria plate margin underwent relatively fast, synsedimentary exhumation in the Early Cretaceous. Moreover, a clear dominance of Campanian zircon cooling ages (80–73 Ma) in Maastrichtian sandstones indicates detritus deriving from the erosion of newly and rapidly exhumed basement units which had undergone Late Cretaceous metamorphism in the Eastern Alps and/or the Tisza-Dacia region. Probably, the rapid Maastrichtian erosion generating metamorphic detritus occurred to a great extent on neighbouring Austroalpine basement units, and/or on the upper plate Tisza-Dacia unit during the subduction stage or the initial stages of the continent–continent collision with Adria. Development of the accretionary wedge probably resulted in a renewed availability of ophiolites for erosion within small and/or dynamically changing catchments, which can be deduced from the notable differences in reconstructed source lithologies for the coeval Glog and Vivodina formations. Combined evidence from sedimentary provenance indicators precludes the Dinaride (Adriatic) basement as a significant source for the Maastrichtian sediments.

This paper elaborates soil, water, and lettuce contamination status with respect to selenium, sulphur, trace metals, and BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) in a coal-based area (Raša Bay, Adriatic Sea, Croatia). A local coal-fired power plant polluted soil with S, Se, Cd, and PAHs due to the combustion of domestic superhigh-organic-sulphur coal. The locality is dotted with waste from coal mining/separation, coal combustion, former metal factories, untreated municipal and coal mine effluents, along with various harbour activities, which contribute to environmental contamination. The methodology involved ICP-MS and GC-MS for the measurement of trace elements and BTEX, respectively, while soil sulphur was determined with Eschka’s mixture. The max values of the analysed trace elements in soil (mg/kg) are reported: Hg 1.14, Cd 3.29, V 624, Se 10.3, Pb 872, Cr 1860, Zn 6580, Cu 1850, and U 25.2. According to ecological indices, these values fall into the category of an extremely high level of soil pollution. Elevated total Se values in surface water are ascribed to leaching of seleniferous coal, ash, and coal-polluted soil. Levels of BTEX in water samples were very low (0–0.83 µg/L). The data provide basic information on the inorganic and organic contamination status of the Raša Bay area.

We explored the potential incorporation of Sentinel-2A imagery for rock unit determination in the Croatian karst region dominated by carbonate rocks. The various lithological units are potential sources of both stone aggregates and dimension stone, and their spatial distribution is of high importance for mineral resource management. The presented approach included the preprocessing and processing of existing analog data (geological maps), Sentinel-2A satellite images and the United States Geological Survey spectral indices, all in combination with ground truth data. Geological mapping and digital processing of legacy maps using the K-means and random forest algorithm reduced the spatial error of the geometry of geological boundaries from 100 m and 300 m to below 100 m. The possibility of discriminating individual lithological units based on spectral analysis and discriminant function analysis was also examined, providing a tool for evaluating the geological potential for mineral resources. Despite the challenges posed by the lithological homogeneity of karst terrain, the results of this study show that the use of spectral signature data derived from Sentinel-2A satellite images can be successfully implemented in such terrains for the enhancement of existing geological maps and mineral resources exploration.

Fossiliferous Middle Miocene deposits from the surroundings of Marija Bistrica (north-east of Zagreb) transgressively overly older pre-Cenozoic bedrocks. Fossils from shallow marine environments are in most cases preserved as bioclasts,...