Geology of North Macedonia
The upper Precambrian of the Pelagon Horst Anticlinorium include mixed series of gneiss, mica schist, barite, cipolem, marble and metarhyolite together with calcite and dolomite up to three kilometers thick.
The Precambrian complex in the Serbo-Macedonian Massif is made up of gneiss, mica schist and gabbro amphibolite with small masses of marble and metarhyolite.
Metarhyolites also dominate in the Riphean-Cambrian segment of the Vardar Zone, including phyllite, spilite and keratophyre, epidote-chlorite, spilite-mica schist and low-grade metamorphic shales.
The Kruschevo granodiorite is associated with the Hercynian orogeny 289 million years ago representing biotite granite that was impacted by intense metamorphism.
Chromium ore was extracted from the massif for decades and it also hosts dunite, harzburgite, veins and lenses of gabbro and rodingite.
Gabbro-diorites of the ophiolite suite include the Demir Kapija-Gevgelija, Klepa and Skopska Crna Gora massifs in the central part of the Vardar Zone.
Ophiolite-gabbro cumulates are identified as oceanic-type gabbros and basalts are believed to have formed from up to 20 percent pre-existing crustal rock.
Flysch is the most common remnant of the Senonian, particularly in the western Vardar Zone (up to three kilometers of alternating conglomerates, sandstones, arkose, marl, limestone and rudist fossils—shifting more toward siltstone in the east).
[7] The Cenozoic is represented by Eocene continental and marine deposits, along with volcanic formations from the Neogene and the last 2.5 million years of the Quaternary.
Continental molasse deposited during the Miocene and Pliocene with sand, clay, tuff, volcanic ash, although there are some layers of diatomaceous earth and limestone in the Pelagon area.
Small basalt eruptions at the edge of the Vardar Zone in the early Quaternary produced some of the youngest rocks in the country.
[8] The Olonos-Pindus Zone extends from Montenegro to Rhodes and is a deep allochthon trough, with clastic Triassic sandstone and the Drymos Limestone.
Alpine cycle sedimentary rocks are situated between the European hinterland in the Serbo-Macedonian Massif, which numbers 28 two-thousand meter peaks within the confines of the country.
[10] Kratovo, which lies on the slope of Mount Osogovo, is itself located in the basin of an extinct volcano and hosts the Plavica (or Plavitsa) deposit, which has been mined since Roman times.
The highest peak is named Ruen (Руен, 2251 m), which constitutes the main orthographic knot on the very border between Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
There are many legends about the origin of name Osogovo, but the most famous one is that the area was briefly settled by Transylvanian Saxons miners who were mining gold and silver in the region in the past.
[13] Duvalo is (Macedonian: Дувало) is an active geothermal surface feature situated close to the village of Kosel, near Lake Ohrid.
[3] Lorándite was first discovered at the Allchar deposit ("Alshar" to some[14]), near Kavadarci and Mount Kozuf in 1894 and named after Loránd Eötvös, a prominent Hungarian physicist.
[27] In 1994, Bermanec et al. discovered centro-symmetric Tilasite near Nezhilovo,[28] in the Pelagonian massif at the upper part of the Babuna river, which lies on the southern flank of the Jakupica range.
[33] In 2005, Boev Jovanovski Makrevski and Bermanec revealed by infrared spectroscopy that the Sivec mineral assemblage contained deposits in marble of:[34]
