Upper Cretaceous geosites on Golija Mountain – objects of geoheritage

The Upper Cretaceous rudist limestones are well-known from several localities in Serbia. Three of these localities (Svilanovo, Bele Vode and Kulizino Selo) are located in SW Serbia, on Golija Mt. These localities are crucial for understanding the development of the Upper Cretaceous shallow-water environments, thus this is an area of great scientific and educational value, particularly considering palaeontology, stratigraphy, palaeoecology and palaeogeography. One of the aims of this paper is to evaluate these geosites and their geotouristic potential, using Geosite Assessment Model (GAM), which is important for their geoconservation as well as for the sustainable development of the area.

This study focuses on the Upper Cretaceous limestone with rudist fauna in the area between Sjenica and Raška (Fig. 1).Here, there are several outcrops of major importance for scientific know ledge and study of Upper Cretaceous fossiliferous sedi ments.However, considering their geological and palaeontologi cal characteristics, only three of these localities (Svilanovo, Kuli zino Selo and Bele Vode) seem to be interesting from the aspect of geological heritage.These localities are very important from the geological point of view, thus the aim of this paper is to pre sent the main scientific arguments for considering these localities to be a part of Serbian geoheritage.
Remains of rudist limestones are scattered on the slopes of Mt.Golija which is the highest mountain in SW Serbia.Mt.Golija has been under state protection as the Golija Nature Park, since 2001.The Golija Nature Park was placed in cat egory I as a natural resource of exceptional importance.Be cause of the exceptionally wellpreserved natural environment, but also because of its cultural resources, the committee of the UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) set up the GolijaStudenica Biosphere Reserve within the Golija Nature Park.Besides their scientific significance, the beautiful landscape and cultural heritage reveal the high tou ristic poten tial of these localities, thus making them quite important from educational, touristic and cultural points of view.All the three localities are easily accessible, since they are situated along as phalt roads.
The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate different ge osites using the preliminary Geosite Assessment Model (GAM) proposed by VUJIČIĆ et al. (2011) in order to determine whether this area has the potential for geotourism development.

GEOLOGICAL SETTING AND GEOSITES SELECTION
The region of western and southwestern Serbia is characterized by an extremely complex geological setting, as a result of col lisional processes between the Adria microplate and the Euro pean plate.The area is composed of the continental DrinaIvan jica, JadarKopaonik and EastBosnianDurmitor Units, as well as two ophiolite belts, which are remnants of oceanic crust that are derived from the Neotethys (DIMITRIJEVIĆ & DIMI TRIJE VIĆ, 1973;ROBERTSON & KARAMATA, 1994;DIMI TRIJE VIĆ, 2001;KARAMATA, 2006).Recent investigations show ed that the double belt appearance (Western Vardar Zone and Dinaridic Ophiolite Belt) and complicated present day geo logical relationships between the continental and oceanic units are the results of Late Jurassic obduction, followed by strong folding and out of sequence thrusting (PAMIĆ et al., 1998;HRVATOVIĆ & PA MIĆ, 2005;CSONTOS et al., 2003;SCHMID et al., 2008).
The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous transgressive phase, characterized predominantly by alluvial to neritic sedimentation, started after obduction and subsequent erosion in the Dinaridic Hellenic belt (PAMIĆ et al., 1998;PAMIĆ & HRVATOVIĆ, 2000;SCHMID et al., 2008).In western and southwestern Ser bia, however, these sediments are absent, possibly due to Early to midCretaceous collisional processes (SCHMID et al., 2008).In this region, both Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sediments of the DrinaIvanjica and JadarKopaonik Units, which derived from the passive margin of Adria, and Jurassic rocks of oceanic origin that belong to the Vardar Zone, are unconformably overlain by Upper Cretaceous transgressive clastic sediments containing re deposited ophiolite fragments.Carbonate and terrigenouscarbo nate sedimentation followed through the Upper Cretaceous until In the area between Čačak and Novi Pazar, outcrops of the Upper Cretaceous rudist limestone occur in the form of a narrow strip along the rim of the overlying flysch deposits.There are also several small lenslike bodies of rudist limestone on the northern slopes of Golija Mountain.With an abundance of exceptionally large and wellpreserved fossils, three localities at which the Up per Cretaceous limestone are exposed, Svilanovo, Kulizino Selo and Bele Vode, should be considered as potentially important for Serbian geoheritage (Fig. 1).
Svilanovo village is located on the southern slopes of Mt.Go li ja, about seven kilometres from the mountain peak Odvra će nica (N 43º14'40" E 20º19'54").Direct access to the locality is along a good asphalt road that branches from the Novi PazarGolija road.Lying over lowgrade metamorphosed schists of Carboniferous age, Upper Cretaceous rudist limestone makes a conspicuous, more than 500 m long scarp along a relatively steep slope (Fig. 2).
In the nearby vicinity, another profile of Upper Cretaceous rudist limestone is exposed in the village of Bele Vode, on the northern slopes of Golija mountain, along the IvanjicaGolija road the Maastrichtian when flysch sedimentation began (MOJSILOVIĆ et al., 1980;FILIPOVIĆ et al., 1978).
The wider investigated area belongs to the Cretaceous cover of Palaeozoic rocks on the eastern rim of the DrinaIvanjica Unit, i.e. to a belt of Cretaceous sediments, known as "Novi Pazar Cre taceous" (RAMPNOUX, 1970) that can be traced from Kosovo towards the north and northwest to the area of Dragačevo.The complete Cretaceous stratigraphic sequence can be traced only in the western part of this belt.
In this area, the Cretaceous sedimentary succession begins with a 30 m thick basal conglomerate and conglomeratic lime stone succession, which is overlain by a shallowwater limestone with SantonianCampanian fauna represented by hippuritids, ra diolitids, globotruncanids, gastropods and echinoids which is about 50 m thick.Rudist limestones are generally considered as products of typical reefal sedimentation (e.g.MILOVANOVIĆ, 1960;ROSS, 1992;KOCH et al., 2002).However, there are other opinions (e.g.GILI et al., 1995;SANDERS, 1998) suggesting that Cretaceous rudists were unable to build bioherms similar to Holo cene coral reefs, but were gregarious sedimentdwelling aclonal suspension feeders.Cretaceous sedimentation ends with a thick sequence of preflysch and flysch sediments of  (N 43º24'09" E 20º17'50").At this locality, Upper Cretaceous sediments transgressively overlie Carboniferous schists.The Up per Cretaceous sequence starts with clastic sediments which are overlain by light gray biomicritic limestone with abundant ru dists, corals and echinoids.The sedimentation regime was occa sionally interrupted by the inflow of clayeysilty material, which resulted in the occurrence of several metres of bedded marly limestone.The succession ends with a massive limestone that contains rudists from the genera Lapeirouseia, Hippurites, Radiolites, Pironea, etc. (Fig. 5).
The third locality is situated in the village of Kulizino Selo, south of Bele Vode (N 43º22'55" E 20º17'32").At this locality, Cre taceous rudist limestone lies above a relatively thin sequence com posed of clastic sediments.A horizon of yellowish clayey limestone with densely packed small rudists, other bivalves and gastropods occurs within the massive limestone with large rudists (Fig. 6).Ru dists at this locality mostly belong to the following genera: Lapeirouseia, Vaccinites, Hippurites, Radiolites and Pironea.The most important rudist specimen belongs to the species Lapeirouseia crateriformis.With a diameter of the upper valve of more than 60 cm, it is the largest rudist ever found in the Dinarides (ĆIRIĆ, 1996).
These geosites are important for understanding the evolution of the wider region of Golija Mountain, making this area of great scientific value, particularly considering palaeontology, stratig raphy, palaeoecology and palaeogeography.
Eastern and central Mediterranean Rudist species Vaccinites atheniensis Ktenas (younger synonym of V. chaperi; STEUBER, 1999), occurring at all these localities (MILOVANOVIĆ, 1975),     can be used for correlation with sedimentary rocks from distant regions.According to MILOVANOVIĆ (1934), in the terrains of Serbia (vicinity of Kosovska Mitrovica, Novi Pazar, Raška, Go lija) this species belongs to the same association as in the Gossau Cretaceous sediments of the Eastern Alps, thus it should have the same stratigraphic position as in the eastern Alps, i.e.Late Santonian -Early Campanian.Recent chemostratigraphic ages reported from the surrounding regions (SWINBURNE at al., 1992) indicate the Campanian age of similar rudistbearing lime stones.Besides, these sediments show strong similarities to the limestone of the Pučišća Fm. in the eastern part of Brač (vicinity of Povlja) in Croatia, which are assigned an early Campanian age (STEUBER et el., 2005).Therefore, considering the absence of micropalaeontological data from our localities and the recently revised ages of similar rudist associations in the wider region, the general age of the rudist limestone on Golija Mt. is probably Cam panian (?early Campanian).
In this paper, evaluation of the chosen localities is based on the preliminary geosite assessment model (GAM), created by VUJIČIĆ et al. (2011).This method involves the quantification of two groups of indicators.The first group (Main values) comprises scientific/educational (VSE), scenic/aesthetical (VSA) and pro tection (VPr) values.These values are crucial for geoheritage as sessment.However, the other group of indicators (Additional va lues), which includes functional (VFn) and touristic values (VTr), is important for considering the geotouristic potential of a site.All indicators are assigned values grading from 0 to 1.
After evaluating each element in both groups of indicators, the total value was calculated for each group.The results obtained are presented in a discrimination diagram, where the Main and Additional values for each site are plotted against each other along the X and Y axes, respectively.The matrix is divided into nine fields and the position of each geosite within one of these fields shows its importance as an object of geoheritage and sug gests plans of action for protection and sustainable management of the geosite.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
With the aim of evaluating the geosites on Golija Mt., three lo calities have been studied as potentially interesting sites of geo heritage significance.Main and Additional values for each sub indicator are given in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.According to MOUFTI et al. (2013), short explanations for the assigned values are given in Tables 1 and 2. The total scores of the Main indica tors were plotted against the values of the Additional indicators (Fig. 7).
The Svilanovo locality has a high value of Main (8.75) and medium value of Additional (7.75) indicators.The overall grade puts the Svilanovo locality (GS1) in the Z 32 cell (Fig. 7).The value of the Main indicators (Table 1) is relatively high, considering the fact that there is no formal protection whatsoever.Additional va lues (Table 2) are at a moderatetohigh level due to a poorly de veloped touristic sector (no promotion, interpretative panels or tour guide service).
The Bele Vode locality (GS2) is in the Z 22 field (Fig. 7).The Main indicator value (7.75) for this locality is somewhat lower due to the fact that there was shortlived limestone exploitation at this locality (Table 1).Additional indicators value (7.25) is also slightly lower than in the previous locality (Table 2).
The third locality, Kulizino Selo (GS3) falls on the boundary between Z 22 and Z 32 (Fig. 7).The overall Main indicators value (8.00) is quite similar to that of the previous two localities (Table 1), but the final grade is lower due to the much lower values of the Additional indicators (6.50;Table 2).
It is evident from Fig. 7 that, according to the mean Main indicator values, the analyzed geosites on Golija Mt., as all other geosites in the region that were previously evaluated by GAM method, fall in the fields Z 2y and Z 3y (y=1,2,3).This indicates their scientific significance and potential for geotourism and ge oconservation.
The obtained data show that the mean value for the group of indicators of Main Values for the studied geosites on Golija Mt. (8.16) is slightly higher than for most of the other evaluated sites in the region.Analysis of different subindicators of Main values shows that although VSE and VPr are balanced and relatively

CONCLUSIONS
The obtained results show that the Main indicators values of the analyzed geosites are high and that these localities are important from a scientific and educational point of view, which leads to the conclusion that Golija Mountain has sufficient levels of natural resources for geotourism development.
The Additional indicators values are at a medium level in all three geosites.This is not surprising, considering the fact that this is a problem for many potential sites of geoheritage signifi cance in Serbia, because of the lack of organized visits, tour guide service, interpretative panels, etc.This implies that there is an urgent need for more rapid, though sustainable, development of the tourism infrastructure.
In order to maintain the original characteristics of these ge osites, it would be necessary to protect them from negative influ ences that might result in degradation or complete devastation.The final aim is geoconservation of the geosites in their original, undisturbed condition, in order to preserve it for future genera tions.The most effective way of protection of objects of geohe ritage significance is to raise the awareness of their scientific, educational, aesthetic and touristic importance, as well as to forbid their commercial exploitation.This paper shows that all the studied localities fully deserve such treatment.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.A simplified and modified geological map of the wider surroundings of the investigated area, based on the Geological Map of SFRY 1:500000 (SAVEZNI GEOLOŠKI ZAVOD, 1970).
, the differences in Main values mostly depend on VSA.The highest VSA for the studied geosites on Golija Mt. (3.33) are due to the large surface areas of the outcrops, the beautiful landscape and their untouched nature.Most of the subindicators represent ing Protection (VPr) are very high for geosites on Golija Mt., but they are significantly lowered due to the lack of any kind of for mal protection.Although VSE for sites on Golija Mt. are quite satisfactory (2.16), low values of Level of interpretation show that these geosites might be interesting in the first instance for people with a geoscience background.The calculated mean Additional values of different groups of geosites greatly differ (from Z x1 to Z x3 , x=1,2,3), depending on the overall development of an area, the number of potential visi tors, touristic infrastructure, management and planning, vicinity of emissive centres, etc. Mean values for the group of indicators of Additional Values for the studied localities are much lower than for geosites on Papuk Mt. and in SE Serbia, but much higher than for those on Fruška Gora Mt. and in Bela Crkva municipa lity.Despite rather similar Functional values (VFn) to geosites is SE Serbia and generally higher than those on Papuk Mt., geosites on Golija Mt. have much lower Touristic values (VTr).The main reason for this is insufficient development of tourism in this area.Such low VTr obtained for the studied geosites are compensated for by relatively high VFn, which results in generally high Addi tional Values. high