## 2 Geological Settings  
During the geological history, sedimentary conditions in the Adriatic Sea have changed significantly, as well as tectonic activity. The final formation of the Adriatic Sea occurred during the Holocene after the Flandrian transgression [11]. The oldest drilled rocks are Permian and Triassic, deposited on an epicir carbonate platform on the northeastern edge of Gondwana. They are followed by intra-oceanic rocks, deposited on an isolated mega-platform, from the end of the Ladinian to the younger Lower Jurassic (Toarcian), and there are deposits of the Adriatic carbonate platform (ACP) from the Toarcian to the end of the Cretaceous [12]. At the end of the Cretaceous, the massive Adriatic carbonate platform gradually disintegrates and rises. In the Paleogene, only some parts of the Adriatic carbonate platform were flooded by the sea, and carbonate sedimentation was influenced by intense tectonic activity [12]. The Adriatic Basin is characterized by distinct depressions of varying ages that formed at different times [12] (Figure 1). The Po and South Adriatic-Albania depressions are the largest but do not have continuous borders or depositional environments throughout their geological history. This is evident from variations in sediment thicknesses, areas, and unconformities between different lithological units [13; 14]. Furthermore, these depressions are mostly asymmetrical in shape. In Croatia, the depressions include the entire Dugi Otok Depression, the eastern parts of the Po and Middle Adriatic Depressions, and the northern part of the South Adriatic-Albania Depression. In the area of the Northern Adriatic, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene sediments are of considerable thickness and cover the entire area, represented by limestones, clays, silts, siltstones, sandstones, and sands [13]. Based on detailed lithofacies and sequence-stratigraphic analysis, [PERSON] (2011) [15] defined four fourth-order Plio-Pleistocene depositional sequences, Q1-Q4, and associated parasequences in the Croatian part of the North Adriatic basin. All these depositional units were detailed, including their internal architecture, depositional mechanisms, and lithofacies associations. The Plio-Pleistocene elastic complex is significantly thicker in Italian than in the Croatian part of the Adriatic basin. Consequently, Italian lithoststratigraphic nomenclature is defined in much more detail than Croatian, where the whole Paleogene to Pleistocene complex belonged to Susak Formation. [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2011) [14] pointed out the  
Figure 1: Depressions in the Adriatic basin (after [13; 14]). need and introduced new lithoststratigraphyy nomenclature for the Croatian part of the basin. According to that nomenclature, Paleogene, predominantly carbonate deposits, belong to the Susak Fm., up to 500 m thick Pliocene clastics to Istra Fm., and 400-1900 m thick Pleistocene clastic complex to Ivana Fm. That division was refined by introducing Anamarija, Katarina, and Izabela members within the Ivana Fm. [16] (Figure 2). The geological settings of the North Adriatic area are mainly the result of the interaction of Apennine fault-and-thrust-belt displacement in the northeast direction, the morphology of the foreland ramp, and the Po River delta progradation in the southeast direction [17]. The analyzed area covers the northeast part of the Po Depression and the northwest edge of the ACP foreland ramp. Depositional environments were changing frequently as a result of regional tectonic movements and eusattic sea level changes during glacials and interglacials. Generally, deep water turbidite sediments were deposited during Pliocene and Lower to Middle Pleistocene when the depositional environment gradually changed to prodelta, delta, and alluvial during Upper Pleistocene [18]. Clastic deposits in the analyzed area and depth interval, belonging to the Ivana Fm. and Izabela Mb.