Rivers Into MAD project: Internal project funded by funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan

The aim of the Project is to define submerged Quaternary landscapes surrounding two karst rivers in central Dalmatia – Jadro and Cetina, and answer if those rivers flew into the Mid-Adriatic Deep (MAD) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The project will determine whether the rivers formed progradational clinoforms, as well as the position and depth of the LGM paleocoastline. The project will also try to determine the timing of Holocene sea-level transgression. An additional goal is to detect the Holocene terraces between the island of Drvenik Mali to Primošten, interpreted as former coastline drowned by rapid sea-level rise. To meet these aims, we will use state-of-the-art instruments and methods: sub-bottom profiler (SBP), multibeam echosounder (MBES), sediment coring, laboratory, and GIS analyses.

The main scientific questions we aim to answer are: did the Jadro and Cetina rivers flow into the MAD during the LGM; did they form progradational clinoforms similar to Italian rivers; where and at what depth LGM palaeocoastline is positioned and is the tectonics major factor contributing to the evolution of the area; how did the source-to-sink landscape evolve; how and when was the area transgressed during the Holocene sea-level rise? Additionally, RIM will aim to discover and define potential terraces in the area from the island of Drvenik Mali to Primošten at the depth range -20 to -150 m b.s.l., and define their extent towards the Žirje archipelago. The obtained results are important for the reconstruction of the Late Quaternary sea-level dynamics and palaeoenvironmental changes in the region, as well as for estimations of future climate and sea level variability. This will provide important clues on the sea level change in the Adriatic Sea, as well as on the response of the coastal systems to such change.