The Slovenj Gradec Basin represents one of the marginal western basins of the Neogene Pannonian Basin system. Its sedimentary succession is investigated by combination of field, petrographic and ...geochemical methods. The succession is at least 540m thick and characterised by frequent alternation of conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and marlstone deposited in terrestrial, brackish and shallow marine environments. Modal composition of the sandstones indicates that they originated from recycled orogen, namely from quartzose sedimentary rocks of the Eastern Alps, and show moderate to absent chemical weathering. The results indicate two different tectonic settings: a collisional, which correlates well with the end-Mesozoic and Cenozoic Alpine collision, resulting in orogeny and thrusting of the Austroalpine nappes, and a passive margin related to the early Neogene lithospheric extension and subsidence as the result of slab retreat in the Carpathian subduction zone, which was responsible for the formation of the Pannonian Basin system.
In this area, where the sediments were subjected to various tectonic events, discriminant function diagrams of Verma and Armstrong Altrin are found to be a good tool for their identification and differentiation.
We present a paleoenvironmental reconstruction for the mountain fringe between the South-Eastern Alps and the Northern Dinarides (NE-Italy/W-Slovenia) during the Last Glacial Maximum. We focused on a ...new sedimentary and paleoecological archive spanning the LGM acme, located in an aggrading, permanently flooded and ponded plain, dammed by an active fluvioglacial megafan. The ecosystem reconstruction, based on two high resolution pollen records, is supported by a rich plant macrofossil flora and constrained by a robust radiocarbon chronology between 26 and 22calka BP. We show evidence for persistence of boreal trees and of different open boreal forest types throughout the LGM at the south-eastern mountain fringe of the Alps and the Northern Dinarides. Fire frequency is responsible for high, oscillating forest openness. The paleobotanical record is discussed in the light of the ecogeographic diversity of the region. A belt formed by Swiss stone pine, larch and dwarf mountain pine on limestone bedrock, and accompanied by Spruce in the floodplain, extended uphill, while proximal outwash plain supported Scots pine and dwarf mountain pine. These differences arise from groundwater regimes rather than from local climate variability. A steep moisture gradient from the semiarid pedoclimatic regime prevailing in the Adriatic alluvial plain to the forested mountain fringe is related to the orographic rainout triggered by southern air circulation. Mesophytic broad-leaved forest trees did not withstand the LGM temperature extremes in zonal ecosystems at the Alpine–Dinaric fringe; however, the fossil evidence suggests a number of microrefugia in karstic and thermal spring habitats of the northern Adriatic.
•Paleoenvironmental reconstruction at Alps–Dinarides fringe during the Last Glacial Maximum•Relationships between regional geological frame, sedimentary environments, and forest history•Persistence of trees and of different types of open boreal forest throughout the LGM
War and Faith Bobiec, By Pavlina
2012, 2012-01-20, Volume:
5
eBook
Drawing on the themes of religious rhetoric, embedded in social and political contexts, this study offers new insights into the manners in which the Catholic Church helped mould the Slovenians' ...responses to WWI and reconsiders the reasons for the clergy's political actions amid tensions, which resulted in the Habsburg empire's collapse.
The first recovery of the conodont Hindeodus parvus from Žiri (Slovenia) a few years ago highlights this area for Early Triassic biostratigraphical study. Systematic sampling of five sections in the ...Idrija–Žiri area has yielded the new species Platyvillosus corniger sp. nov. and Neospathodus planus sp. nov. Based on these new species and other conodont elements collected here, nine discrete conodont Unitary Association (UA) zones are proposed for this area. In ascending order they are: Eurygnathodus costatus Zone (UA 1), Eurygnathodus hamadai Zone (UA 2), Foliella gardenae Zone (UA 3), Neospathodus robustus Zone (UA 4), Platyvillosus corniger Zone (UA 5), Platyvillosus regularis Zone (UA 6), Triassospathodus hungaricus Zone (UA 7), Triassospathodus symmetricus Zone (UA 8), and Neospathodus robustispinus Zone (UA 9). The conodont and δ13C data indicate that these conodonts span the Dienerian/Smithian (i.e. Induan/Olenekian) boundary interval to the Spathian, and they also indicate that Triassospathodus hungaricus Zone (UA 7) does not occur at the base of the Spathian. These conodont zones are valuable for stratigraphic correlation within Central and southern Europe, and they also promote a better correlation worldwide. Conodonts in the Idrija–Žiri area were adapted to a shallow-water environment in an epeiric ramp.
•Nine discrete conodont zones are identified for the Early Triassic in Idrija–Žiri, Slovenia.•δ13C data and conodonts indicate that these sections span the late Dienerian to Spathian.•According to δ13C data the Smithian/Spathian boundary is characterized by Foliella gardenae.•These conodonts were adapted to a shallow-water environment in an epeiric ramp.•This unique conodont sequence was probably the result of paleoecological influence and/or provincialism.
Upper Permian and lowermost Triassic strata of the Masore section in western Slovenia have been restudied by means of bio- and lithostratigraphy. This section is mainly characterized by a carbonate ...succession of the Bellerophon Formation deposited in a shallow marine ramp environment that was located in the western part of the Paleotethys. The Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) transition is marked by laminated microbialites – stromatolites interpreted to reflect a deeper ramp environment. The conodont elements recovered enabled the recognition of the Hindeodus praeparvus Zone of the uppermost Permian (Upper Changhsingian) in the Bellerophon Formation. Gondolellids are documented in the PTB transitional interval with microbial microfacies, whereas the Isarcicella isarcica Zone (Lower Griesbachian, Lower Triassic) is recognized in the tectonically separated Werfen Formation just above the microbial microfacies part of the section. The lowermost part of the microbialites is characterized by Late Permian species of foraminifers indicating that at least this part of the section is still Upper Permian.
•The Masore section in Slovenia has been restudied.•The PTB transition is marked by laminated microbialites – stromatolites.•Three conodont faunas are recognized based on Clarkina, Hindeodus and Isarcicella.•Abundant and diverse Changhsingian foraminifers are documented.•The Masore area was located in the western Paleotethyan carbonate ramp-like edge.
This paper summarizes the observation of the Potoška planina landslide, which is located in the Karavanke mountain range in NW Slovenia. The landslide lies at the tectonic contact between the Upper ...Carboniferous and the Permian clastic rocks, and the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic carbonate rocks. Due to active tectonics, the clastic rocks are heavily deformed and, consequently, highly prone to fast and deep weathering. The carbonate rocks are also highly fissured due to tectonic disturbances, which result in large quantities of talus and scree material covering the part below the crown. A greater spatial density of springs and wetlands, supplied from the infiltration, is evident at the contact between scree and clastic rocks. Due to prevailing geological, tectonic and hydrological conditions, the Potoška planina area is highly prone to different slope mass movements. This paper presents the monitoring of surface movement patterns at the toe of the Potoška planina landslide. The sliding mass is composed of tectonically deformed and weathered Upper Carboniferous and Permian clastic rocks covered with a large amount of talus material, which is unstable and prone to landslides. Additionally, the Bela torrent causes significant erosion and increases the possibility of mobilization of the sliding mass downstream. Based on said conditions and field survey work, the toe of the landslide is considered to be the most active part of the landslide. In order to estimate surface movement patterns over a monitoring period of 22.5 months and five reconnaissance campaigns, periodic monitoring was conducted using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based photogrammetry, which provides high-resolution images and tachymetric geodetic measurements that enable accurate control of photogrammetric analysis of surface displacements. Using the results of said periodic monitoring, analyses of UAV-based displacement patterns, surface elevations and volume changes were all modelled for four observation periods. According to our results, the movement pattern at the toe of the Potoška planina landslide indicates a steadily downslope movement of the entire area with localized surges superficial slips.
In the karst landscape of the Kras Plateau (south‐west Slovenia), we studied the impact of historical human‐induced land degradation on biodiversity by studying the characteristics and changes in ...vegetation of degraded and nondegraded karst depressions (dolines). Intensive human‐induced land degradation began as a consequence of the abandonment of traditional land use; thus, many dolines have disappeared by being completely filled with waste material and overgrowth. The study is based on a chronosequence approach and assesses whether vegetation (e.g., community succession stages) can be used as a (bio)indicator of land degradation to estimate approximately the duration of degradation on the basis of the stage of succession. The locations and duration of degradation of dolines were identified in advance by analysing a time series of historical aerial photographs, topographical maps, and digital elevation models. Ecological evaluation was based on sampling the floristic composition and the topsoil. In this study, three vegetation measures were established as indicative of degradation: (a) the appearance of ruderal species, (b) hemeroby, and (c) alien and invasive species. A succession model of degraded karst landscape was produced on the basis of identified chronosequences to assess the long‐term spatial impact of doline degradation on karst biodiversity. The model is showing the tendency towards the vegetation homogenization of karst landscape.
Slovenia Mrak, Mojmir; Rojec, Matija; Silva-Jauregui, Carlos
2004, 03-01-2004, 20040101
eBook, Book
Open access
Slovenia has been undergoing a three-fold transition: (i) from command to market economy; (ii) from regional to national economy; and (iii) from being a part of Socialist Federative Republic of ...Yugoslavia to joining the European Union. The main objective of the book is to analyze Slovenia’s three-fold transition and to contribute towards filling the obvious gap in the literature on this subject. The book provides an overview of most important developments faced by Slovenia during its more than a decade of transition and discusses main challenges that are expected in the years to come. Interdisciplinary in its character, the book focuses on socio-economic and political segments of the country’s transition, and integrates them into the existing pool of knowledge on the transition process.. The book contains 24 chapters written by various authors, many of them key policy makers from Slovenia that have been involved in the design and implementation of critical reforms, and by scholars from within Slovenia and abroad.. The chapters are grouped into three thematic parts: (i) Slovenia’s road towards political and economic independence; (ii) the Slovenian way of socio-economic transformation; and (iii) the quest for EU membership.
Uncertain Path Rizman, Rudolf M; Ramet, Sabrina P
2006, 2000, 2006-06-07
eBook
In this case study of the politics of transition in Eastern Europe, Rudolf Martin Rizman provides a careful, detailed sociological explanation and narrative on the emergence of independent statehood ...and democracy in Slovenia, a small state whose experience is of interest to policy makers, scholars, and serious students of Eastern Europe. In his focus on the transition from an authoritarian to a democratic regime, Rizman analyzes social processes and political issues in the context of the Third Wave of democratization, identifying "zones of certainty and uncertainty." Challenging many generally accepted ideas about small states and their transitions to democracy, this book places Slovenia's pattern of democratization in the wider regional context of eastern and central European post-communist transitions. Rizman shows, for example, that a country's size is merely one factor out of many, and while Slovenes considered the influence of larger states, their choices were not particularly circumscribed by them.
Opening with a discussion of the relevant theoretical environment in sociology and political science, Rizman illuminates the complex processes of democratic transition and consolidation. From there, the book analyzes the internal and external processes and factors relevant for Slovenia's successful trajectory from existence as an ethnically defined sub-nation to an internationally recognized nation-state.After careful consideration of religious, political, military, intellectual, and other socio-political stakeholders in the region, including the somewhat disturbing evidence of the salience of a new "radical Right", Rizman concludes that Slovenia is irreversibly set on the course of democratization, with indications of having reached the early stages of consolidation.
The Post-Forum Study Tour following the 4th World Landslide Forum 2017 in Ljubljana (Slovenia) focuses on the variety of landslide forms in Slovenia and its immediate NW surroundings, and the ...best-known examples of devastating landslides induced by rainfall or earthquakes. They differ in complexity of the both surrounding area and of the particular geological, structural and geotechnical features. Many of the landslides of the Study Tour are characterized by huge volumes and high velocity at the time of activation or development in the debris flow. In addition, to the damage to buildings, the lives of hundreds of people are also endangered; human casualties occur. On the first day, we will observe complex Pleistocene to recent landslides related to the Mesozoic carbonates thrust over folded and tectonically fractured Tertiary siliciclastic flysch in the Vipava Valley (SW Slovenia), serving as the main passage between the Friulian lowland and central Slovenia, and thus also an important corridor connecting Northern Italy to Central Europe. A combination of unfavourable geological conditions and intense short or prolonged rainfall periods leads to the formation of different types of complex landslides, from large-scale deep-seated rotational and translational slides to shallow landslides, slumps and sediment gravity flows in the form of debris or mudflows. The second day of the study tour will be held in the Soča River Valley located in NW Slovenia close to the border with Italy, where the most catastrophic Stože landslide in Slovenia recently caused the deaths of seven people, and the nearby Strug landslide, which is a combination of rockfall, landslide and debris flow. The final day of the Post-Forum Study Tour will start in the Valcanale Valley located across the border between Slovenia and Italy, severely affected by a debris flow in August 2003. The flow caused the deaths of two people, damaged 260 buildings; large amounts of deposits blocked the A23 Highway, covering both lanes. In Carinthia (Austria), about 25 km west of Villach, the Dobrač/Dobratsch multiple scarps of prehistoric and historic rockslides will be observed. Dobratsch is a massive mountain ridge with a length of 17 km and a width of 6 km, characterized by steep rocky walls. The 3-day study tour will conclude with a presentation of the Potoška planina landslide, a slide whose lower part may eventually generate a debris flow and therefore represents a hazard for the inhabitants and for the infrastructure within or near the village of Koroška Bela.
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