Sedimentological Characteristics of Limestones

Nebojsa Vasic, Milica Kasanin-Grubin, Nenad Grubin

Caves in the Carpatho-Balkanides of Eastern Serbia

KT - Kucaj-Tupiznica Carbonate Platform (Grubic A., Jankicevic J., 1973),
Z - Western rim of the platform,
C - Central part of the platform,
I - Eastern part of the platform,
M - Miroc Carbonate Platform,
75 - Number of a cave.

Conclusion

The sedimentological approach in studying areas in which caves are found in Serbia indicates that most caves are situated in limestones that were formed in environments linked with carbonate platform systems. In Eastern Serbia, they are the Kucaj-Tupiznica and Miroc carbonate platforms, developed during the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. In Western Serbia, the systems are the Jadar carbonate platform and the Southwest Serbian carbonate platform, both developed during the Upper Triassic, together with a pre-platform stage of the Middle Triassic.

The environments (facies) in such systems are biologically and chemically highly productive of carbonates (aragonite and calcite) with a very small input of non-carbonaceous (sandy and clayey) material, especially in the cases of isolated carbonate platforms. The results are thick deposits of vertically and laterally organized microfacies of mineralogically and chemically very pure limestones with content of calcite (CaCO3) ranging from 90 to 99%.

The thickness and purity of carbonates deposited on the Mesozoic carbonate platforms of Eastern and Western Serbia represent the basic material condition that after the tectonic phase enabled caves to be formed during karstification processes.