The regionalgeology of Serbia describes the geologic structure and history inside the borders of Serbia.
Serbia is in recent geologic time a part of theEurasian Plate, but the bedrock lithologies are witness to a diverse geologic history.[1] In atectonic sense,Serbia is part of an orogenic system that is composed of theAlpine,Carpathian, andDinarideorogenic belts.[2][3] Its territory can be divided into five geotectonic units of differing genesis:[4][5]
TheSava Zone (named after the riverSava) is an oceanic suture that strikes roughly NNW to SSE through Serbia and is mostly covered in the north by the sediments of the Pannonian Basin. Outcrops can be found in theFruška Gora (Fruška mountains).[2] Here the unit is composed ofblueschists andophiolites. In the south outcrops of the Sava Zone occur in theBalkan andRhodope Mountains. This includes theSenonian Flysch and the rocks cropping out in theJastrebac Window.[2]
The Jadar-Kopaonik Thrust Sheet is a NW-SE striking unit in the southern footwall of the Sava Zone and the northern hangingwall of the Drina-Ivanjica Thrust Sheet.[2] Most of the outcrops are ophiolites from theWestern Vardar ocean, but there are some windows into the underlying basement. The Jadar unit in western Serbia (Jadar Region) is the largest window into the underlying Adriatic units of the Jadar-Kopaonik Thrust Sheet. Two smaller windows crop out farther to the south. The Studenica unit lies in the west and the Kopaonik unit in the east of the thrust sheet.[6]
The Supragetic nappes form a N-S striking belt in eastern Serbia, where they crop out in theBalkan Mountains (Stara Planina). They are part of thepaleogeographic realm of Dacia. The Supragetic is subdivided into the Ranovac and Vlasina unit.[2]
The Drina-Ivanjica thrust sheet forms a NNW to SSE striking thrust sheet through southwestern Serbia. It is composed of a Paleozoic basement and Mesozoic cover. On top of this lies the obducted Zlatibor ophiolite (Zlatibor Mountains), a remnant of the Western Vardar ocean.[2]
Serbia is prone to moderate to strong seismic activity, especially in the central belts of Vardar Zone and Serbian Massif.[7] Major earthquakes in the 20th century ranged between 5.0 from 6.0 (Lazarevac 1922)Richter scale. The last major earthquake at 5.4occurred near Kraljevo on 3 November 2010.[8]
List of major earthquakes in the 20th and 21st centuries:[9][10]
A 2016 stamp dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the Serbian Geologic Society, featuring its founder,Jovan Žujović.
The Serbian Geologic Society was established by a group of professors and students inBelgrade on 10 February 1891 under the leadership ofJovan Žujović.[11] The geologic survey was founded 29 December 1930.[12]
The economic geology of Serbia was reviewed by Melcher and Reichl in 2017.[13]
Serbia is the 18th largest producer of coal (7th in Europe) extracted from large deposits inKolubara andKostolac basins; it is also world's 23rd largest (3rd in Europe) producer of copper which is extracted nearMajdanpek byZijin Bor Copper, a large copper mining company with significant gold extraction.[14][15][16][13] In 2018, it was acquired by the ChineseZijin Mining, which in April 2021 was ordered by the government to cease activity because of "non-compliance with environmental standards".[17]
^Mica Martinovic; Mihailo Milivojevic (25 April 2010)."Serbia Country Update"(PDF).Proceedings of World Geothermal Congress 2010. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 22 July 2011.
^abMelcher, Frank; Reichl, Christian (2017). "Economic Geology of the Eastern and South-eastern European (ESEE) Region".BHM Berg- und Hüttenmännische Monatshefte.162 (7):238–244.doi:10.1007/s00501-017-0625-4.S2CID134480133.
^Schumacher, Friedrich (1954). "The ore deposits of Jugoslavia and the development of its mining industry".Economic Geology.49 (5):451–492.doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.49.5.451.
^Antonijevic I. (1983) Lezista gvozda Srbije [Translated Title: The iron ore deposits of Serbia]. Vesnik, Zavod za Geoloska i Geofizicka Istrazivanja, Serija A: Geologija, 41, p. 5-40.
