academy of scences] ALPINE. AND ATLAS MOUNTAINS. 29 



No. 1] 



and has invaded the lower series of Mesozoic rocks, producing contact rocks. Mrazec recog- 

 nizes a clear connection between the injection of the serpentine and the dislocations, and holds 

 it has no genetic relationship with the greenstones among which it occurs. 



THE BALKAN PENINSULA. 



Though there is a very extensive literature on the geology of the Balkans (Toula's ('03) 

 bibliography enumerates over 1,300 papers), it is difficult to obtain a comprehensive idea of 

 the occurrence of the green-rocks except in the useful summaries given by Katzer ('03), Vinassa 

 de Regny ('03), and Philippson ('03). Apparently these have many features in co mm on with 

 the alpine green-rocks. A great zone of serpentines and peridotite extends from Croatia into 

 Bosnia, where these rocks are associated with gabbros and thrust among Jurassic and Cretaceous 

 jasper, chert, limestone, flysch-sandstone, and tuffs, together with diabase and amygdaloidal 

 melaphyre, about which the sedimentary rocks are more or less silicified. Some observers con- 

 sider that the green-rocks are a single series which were injected in Tertiary times, but Tietze 

 and Bittner (cited by Kispatic '00) place them in the Upper Cretaceous, the former connecting 

 them doubtfully with the tuffs as in part effusive. Kispatic, on the other hand, separates the 

 gabbro, peridotites, amphibolites, and eclogites from this series, and considers them to be 

 passively inthrust Archaean rocks. Katzer ('03) notes that pebbles of serpentine occur in the 

 Lower Cretaceous sandstones beneath which lie the uppermost Jurassic beds, the green-rocks, 

 the lower Jurassic, Triassic, and Palaeozoic beds, and therefore concludes that some at least 

 of the green-rocks are of Middle Jurassic age, but does not discuss their rnise-en-place. Invading 

 the serpentine are a series of post-Triassic, possibly Cretaceous gabbros and norites, diorites, 

 and granites. 



In Montenegro the only sign of green-rocks recorded are pebbles in conglomerates, but 

 porphyrites, diabases, and diorites invade the Triassic rocks (Vinassa de Regny '03). 



Southeastward the Bosnian serpentine zone is continued into Herzegovina and into Mace- 

 donia and Greece. In the latter country, according to Philippson ('03), there is a foundation 

 of crystalline schists, the earliest fossiliferous formations being Liassic shales, limestones, and 

 radiolarian chert which probably extend up into the early Cretaceous. 9 The absence of the 

 early Tertiary rocks suggests that this was a period of considerable crustal movement, and to 

 this period has been assigned the intrusion of the numerous serpentine-masses which occur 

 associated with gabbro, diorite, and diabase which are certainly pre-Miocene (Lepsius '93). 

 Detailed petrographical descriptions of the probably Jurassic radiolarian jaspers and cherts, 

 the hornblende schists, diabase, amygdaloid schalstein, and the plutonic series recall many of 

 the features of the Alpine occurrences (Hilber and Ippen '04). Ktenas ('07) has described 

 the occurrence of serpentine in the Cyclades, where it is associated with saussurite-gabbro and 

 gabbro-schist, jadeite, garnet-amphibolite, epidote-zoisite, and glaucophane-schists, and also 

 chloritic talc-schists. He believes that the serpentine and gabbros are intrusive, the latter 

 possibly related to a gabbro which invades the Hippurites limestone of Euboea. 



From Greece the zones of green-rocks continue in two series, the one striking directly into 

 Asia Minor across the Aegean Sea, the other passing into Syria by way of Crete and Cyprus. 

 No green-rocks appear to have been reported from Turkey. In Crete, according to Cayeux 

 ('02), the Mesozoic formation is chiefly Jurassic and in part Triassic. It contains a series of 

 intrusions of serpentine, and gabbro invaded by diorite and syenite, apparently pre-Cretaceous 

 in age, and accompanied by diabase, the age of which is uncertain. Bergeat ('92) shows that 

 altered diabase and epidosite invaded by gabbro and serpentine forms the central chain of 

 Cyprus. These invade also the Cretaceous limestone, and fragments of the gabbro occur as 

 pebbles in the Miocene beds, which are unconformable with the Eocene, as also are the latter 

 upon the Cretaceous beds. 



• For a recent discussion of the structure of this country see Renz ('12). 



