PERMO-TRIASSIC EVOLUTION OF THE ADRIA MARGIN IN NORTHERN ALBANIA

In the northern Albania and surrounding Montenegro are cropping out rocks that may be referred to the eastern margin of Adria promontory, facing the Neo-Tethys Ocean. According to present palinspasthic interpretation, the Dinaric Platform is surrounded by areas (Budva and Cukali zones) with basinal trend during the Triassic. The Cukali zone in this interpretation is situated nearby the Korabi zone, who represents the easternmost sector of continental lithosphere towards the ocean. The ophiolites of the Mirdita zone are allochtonous and originate from the oceanic lithosphere of Vardar. The early opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean along this sector of the Adria margin is dated to the late Anisian (Middle Triassic).

ON THE RELATIVELY COMPOSITIONAL HOMOGENEITY OF ALBANIAN EASTERN OPHIOLITIC BELT

Ophiolitic formation of Albanides, named as Mirdita zone, represents a compactsegment of oceanic lithosphere of Middle-Upper Jurassic. Based on petrographic,geochemical and metalogenical features two types of belts are distinguished: westernMORB and eastern SSZ types. In fact, structural and geological units as well as manyother elements have shed light on lack of a sharp separation between the two belts.Recent investigations have evidenced that different ultramafic massifs of westernophiolitic formation, represent an evident variation of their composition fromharzburgite to lherzolitic -types. This composition reflects a different grade of partialmelting of upper mantle. Peridotites show a high variability, from 0.3 - 3.8 wt.%Al2O3, varying from small to highly extreme depleted peridotite.On the contrary, Albanian eastern belt, it seems to be formed by a more homogeneoushartzburgitic mantle.Detailed petrologic and metallogenic investigations have evidenced that this beltchanges also from one massif to another, naturally at a smaller level, therefore it iseasier to be named relatively homogeneous. It is distinguished by a higher meltingdegree, chiefly of hartzburgitic-type, characterized by whole and thick ultramaficsection, as well as by metalogenic variety, mostly of metallurgic-type of chromitemineralization. It is supposed that rock-forming and mineraluzation processes havebeen developed not uniformly along the ophiolitic belt.

Salpingoporella nicolacarrasi spec. nov., a dasycladalean alga from Santonian of southwestern Serbia (Novi Pazar, Mirdita Zone)

A dasycladalean alga, Salpingoporella nicolacarrasi spec. nov., is described from Santonian limestones of the Mur Formation outcropping in Novi Pazar, Mirdita Zone belt, SW Serbia. The alga, the main axis of which bears tightly packed whorls of numerous laterals, resembles the Triassic Salpingoporella sturi. Calcareous sparry calcite skeleton, likely first aragonitic, is more or less heavily destroyed by a special process of bio-erosion, described under the name of Mur1.

Involutina farinacciae Bronnimann & Koehn-Zaninetti 1969, a marker for the Middle Liassic in basinal and some platform facies of Mediterranean and near east areas: The discussion concerning the paleogeography of Montenegro-Albania border region (the Scutari-Pec lineament)

Foraminiferal species Involutina farinacciae BRONNIMANN & KOEHN-ZANINETTI, is a marker of Middle Liassic basinal and transitional platform bassin facies widely distributed in Mediterranean area (Umbria-Marche, Pindos, Budva, Sicilia and the Inner Dinarides basin), also in Iraqi Kurdistan (?Avroman? Basin). In the Dinaric Carbonate Platform (DCP) it indicates intramarginal and intraplatform depressions. Paleogeography of the Montenegro-Albania border area formed by the inherited prealpine paleogeographic scenario that resulted in a different arrangement of the paleogeographic units westward and eastward of the paleostructure (Scutari-Pec Lineament) which controlled the geological history of the region. This transverse paleostructure was a) coincident with the paleogeographic front of the DCP, and b) the westward limit of the overtrusted Mirdita Zone. The difference in the paleogeographic features in the prolongation from the DCP througout Albania, controlled by paleostructure, are the source of seizmicity, rotation and deviation (SE to NW, into NE) of the Complex Mirdita Zone.

Neomeris mokragorensis sp. Nov. (Calcareous alga, Dasycladales) from the cretaceous of Serbia, Montenegro and the Northern calcareous Alps, (Gosau group, Austria)

The new species of the genus Neomeris - Neomeris mokragorensis sp. nov. described in this paper from western Serbia originates: from the Albian of Mokra Gora (the succession transgrading on the serpentinite) and from the Turonian of the Skrapez-Kosjeric area (the succession transgrading on the Carboniferous). The presence of this species has been noted in the Turonian of the Kukes and in the Santonian of the Metohija Cretaceous Unit (Mirdita Zone). In the surrounding of Podgorica (Dinaric Carbonate Platform, Montenegro), the same species previously was presented as Neomeris cf cretacea STEINMANN. Well preserved Neomeris specimens from the Turonian to the Santonian strata of the Northern Calcareous Alps (Gosau Group, Austria) previously described as Neomeris circularis BADVE & NAYAK, is assigned to Neomeris mokragorensis sp. nov. Neomeris mokragorensis is characterized by a thin loosed skeleton formed only around ampullae, by which, besides the form of the ampullae, this species is clearly distinct from Neomeris cretacea (Steinmann).