Natural stones, their origin and usage represent a segment of geoheritage. They not only represent natural value and beauty in their in situ areas but also bring their qualities closer to all of us ...in the ex situ places, where these stones are used. Knowledge about certain rock types, their age and origin, as well as exploitation methods, can give additional information on their importance and preservation. This knowledge should not be connected only with scientific work or displayed in museums but should be available daily to people of all ages and interests. Croatia is a country rich in sedimentary rocks due to its geological history. Therefore, natural stones represent valuable Croatian geoheritage and Zagreb urban geoheritage. Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, is a city in which strong connection of the building stones used in the city and geology of the area can be seen from the historical usage of local rocks, mainly from the quarries in the area of the nearby Medvednica Mt. Other commonly used natural stones include mostly limestones, which are exploited from quarries in southern parts of Croatia (Istria and Dalmatia), like various types of rudist limestones (Veselje unito, Veselje fiorito, Rasotica), oncolytic and stylolithic limestones and Lithiotis limestones. Magmatic stone varieties are not exploited in Croatia, but their beauty, quality and common usage in modern times contribute to the geoheritage in general. This paper presents an overview of varieties of different natural stones, their usage and contribution to Croatian geoheritage and their potential for the promotion of urban geoheritage and geotourism in the City of Zagreb.
The revitalization and protection of industrial and natural heritage is an important part of the cultural identity of a society that respects its history and wants to build a prosperous and ...sustainable future. This paper describes four selected case studies of the successful revitalization and presentation of mining, geology, and petroleum heritage in the Republic of Croatia: a former quarry (Rupnica), two metal mines (St. Barbara Mine and Zrinski Mine) and one site of petroleum heritage (Peklenica and Selnica Petroleum Heritage Park). For revitalization strategy of selected areas, SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix were performed. Sub-strategy ranking was done through five key principles of geotourism. The strong and weak points of revitalized projects are indicated, as well as recommendations for the realisation of future geoheritage projects. This paper describes how a currently poor-mining country, which is intensively developing tourism, can protect, present, and promote its former industrial heritage, which is related to geoheritage. One of the main goals is to encourage all stakeholders to promote industrial heritage based on a simplified form of the mentioned analysis method and matrix.
The determination and estimation of elastic behaviour are essential in engineering practise, especially in quarrying, mining, construction, and all engineering professions that perform operations ...dealing with rock materials. Young’s modulus, or modulus of elasticity, is the most important property describing the deformability of rock material. In this paper, grain-supported carbonates from Croatia are described and their elastic modulus and significant physical and mechanical properties are determined. The analysis of the collected data was performed in the R statistical environment. Estimation models based on multiple linear regression and the regression tree model were created. The methodology of model development and evaluation in R environment is described in detail. According to the more stringent coefficients (RMSECV and adjusted R2) used to evaluate the success of the estimation, simple regression tree models were found to perform well for the preliminary estimation, while more complex models based on Bagging performed very well.
Dimension stone is a valuable mineral raw material whose importance is increasing worldwide. According to its mineralogical and petrographical composition, Croatian dimension stone belongs to the ...carbonates, primarily limestones. As saturation influences the reduction of compressive strength, in this study, the relationship between the uniaxial compressive strength in the dry and saturated states is shown, which has a coefficient of determination of 0.9605. Models were created to estimate the compressive strength based on the values of water absorption, total porosity, and real density of the material from 26 sites, all determined according to the European standards EN 1936:2006 and EN 13755:2008. Thirty varieties of dimension stones were tested, and 150 values were collected from different tests. A dependence between the uniaxial compressive strength in the saturated state was established, including the explanation in which cases the correlation can be used to estimate the uniaxial compressive strength of carbonate dimension stones with a remarkably high degree of confidence (0.994 and 0.9374). In addition, the limitations of geomechanical estimation of the uniaxial compressive strength of rock material and its unsuitability for estimating of dimension stones construction are described.
Natural stone has been used since the dawn of civilization as a construction material for buildings that are historical and cultural buildings and monuments. The Zagreb Cathedral is an example of ...such a historical and cultural building and data regarding the extraction of stone for its construction and reconstruction is scientifically underestimated. Based on a review of previously published literature and an investigation on the current state of the sites where stone for construction was previously quarried, this paper presents a systematic overview of challenges regarding stone material that will be faced in the restoration of the Cathedral after the 2020 earthquakes. The autochthonous stone varieties used for the Cathedral, namely lithothamnium limestone, litavac, calcareous sandstone, and vinicite were determined. The description of the locations where they were quarried was emphasized, and the suitability of these sites for re-quarrying the stone blocks during reconstruction after the 2020 earthquake was investigated. In addition, the Cathedral was renovated in the meantime with travertine imported from Italy, which, although it is not of domestic origin, represents an integral part of the Cathedral and whose characteristics must be taken into account in the planning of the current reconstruction of the Cathedral. To preserve the cultural memory of quarrying in the Zagreb area, emphasis is given to the importance of preserving and showing old visual representations of the quarries.
Consideration of multiperiod archaeological sites to understand the mechanisms of large-scale cultural changes is still a very rare research topic in Croatia. Technological traditions are of great ...importance, especially in the context of considering continuity, innovation, and change. In this paper, we used an archaeometric approach to investigate pottery technology. Therefore, this article presents an analysis of petrography and mineralogy of archaeological ceramics and potential raw materials collected in the vicinity of the multi-period archaeological site (the Neolithic through the Medieval period) Jagodnjak-Krčevine located in eastern Croatia, i.e. the south-western part of the Pannonian Basin. The primary goal is to determine what kind of clay recipe (clay and temper) potters used to make vessels in order to better understand their variability in the context of techno-functional features. The additional objective is to examine the availability and quality of clays for pottery production and to study their distribution in the local landscape. The analytical methods applied in the research are optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and grain size analysis. The comparison of archaeological ceramics with clayey materials established that ancient potters used locally available clays, and the selection of temper material added to the clay represents a strong element of techno-tradition, which is more pronounced for prehistoric communities. Furthermore, these results represent the first research in Croatia focused on a discussion about distances that potters travelled to obtain their resources in the different periods of the past, which can contribute to the study of a regional system of production and landscape use.
Sedimentary and diagenetic features of Upper Triassic dolomites are determined and related to technical properties (apparent density, water absorption, open porosity and point load strength tested by ...Point Load Test, PLT) for possible use as building aggregate. Samples are taken from three quarries in the Medvednica and Samobor Mts., in NW Croatia. Samples from the Ivanec Quarry are determined as the early-diagenetic dolomite (EDD), late-diagenetic dolomite (LDD) and "transitional" dolomite (TD). Samples from the Dolje Quarry are determined as early-diagenetic dolomite (EDD) and late-diagenetic dolomite (LDD). The samples from the Gradna Quarry are determined as late-diagenetic dolomites (LDD). According to the physical and mechanical properties, the best variety to use as a crushed stone or as an aggregate proved to be the late-diagenetic dolomite from the Dolje Quarry. Samples from the Dolje Quarry have the lowest values of open porosity and water absorption and the highest values of apparent density and PLT, due to their sedimentary-diagenetic features.
Industrijska baština važan je segment u ekonomskome, povijesnome i kulturnome identitetu suvremenoga europskog društva. Znatan dio industrijske baštine čine objekti koji su ostali nakon rudarenja ...mineralnih sirovina ili eksploatacije nafte. Štoviše, zemlje koje nemaju jako razvijenu rudarsku i naftnu djelatnost ipak njeguju tu vrstu industrijske baštine. Geološka baština bitna je za razumijevanje naravi prirode, njezina većeg vrednovanja te njezine bolje zaštite. Rudarska je djelatnost uvijek imala važnu gospodarsku ulogu, ali njezina se percepcija u modernome društvu promijenila zbog sve većih zahtjeva za očuvanjem okoliša vezanih za europski zeleni plan i prilagodbu europske ekonomije održivoj budućnosti. Međutim, rudarska baština ne mora biti negativno prihvaćena u javnosti, ona danas itekako može postati atrakcija koja pridonosi razvoju turizma te na taj način čuva tu vrstu nasljeđa za dobrobit cjelokupne zajednice. U ovome se radu pojašnjava prvi put korišten pojam „geotehnološka baština” kao novi pojam koji spaja rudarsku, geološku i naftnu baštinu zbog njihove prirodne međusobne povezanosti i isprepletenosti. Pored toga, dan je pregled nedovoljno cijenjene hrvatske geotehnološke baštine u eksploataciji kamena i drugih nemetalnih mineralnih sirovina, ugljena, mineralnih sirovina za proizvodnju kovina i u eksploataciji nafte. Za razliku od Hrvatske potencijal geotehnološke baštine prepoznat je i iskorišten u većemu dijelu Europe. S obzirom na to Hrvatska ima dobru priliku za razvoj toga tipa baštine na temelju iskustva uspješnijih članica Europske unije.
Geological investigations were carried out in the Sinawin-Sha'wa area, in northwestern Libya, in order to find suitable rocks for aggregate in asphalt mixtures for Nalut - Ghadamis Road ...reconstruction. By combined field work and micropetrographical analysis four different carbonate lithofacies were determined within Upper Cretaceous sedimentary sequence: lithofacies A - micritic limestones; lithofacies B - dolomitic marls; lithofacies C - dolobiomicrites; lithofacies D - biosparites and biosparudites. Diagenetic processes of cementation, recrystallization, dolomitization and silicification were identified within these lithofacies. Stone samples, taken from three lithofacies A, C, and D, were analyzed in order to determine its physical and mechanical properties (apparent density, open porosity, water absorption, uniaxial compressive strength). In addition, aggregate produced by crushing of the rock from lithofacies D is tested on resistance to crushing and abrasion (LA test). Samples from lithofacies B were not included in the testing of physical and mechanical properties since it is estimated as not suitable rock material for crushed aggregate. Samples from lithofacies A, C and D showed significant differences in the physical and mechanical properties. These differences stem from differences in mineralogical and petrographical composition as well as from diagenetic processes. Stone of lithofacies D were estimated as the most appropriate rocks available in the area, for aggregate in asphalt mixtures.
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