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Ge
o l o g i c a l
s t r u c t u r e
Zlatibor has been built of "green rocks" -
serpentinites. This is the largest serpentine massif in Serbia. The other
rocks, limestone in the first place,
occur mainly in peripheral northern and eastern parts of the mountain in the
shape of flat rocks of various width and spreading. Along with limestone rocks there a lot of limestone phenomena
occur: caves,
pits, springs, thermal springs, chasms, depressions and others.
In the region of Zlatibor 142 speleologic objects have been discovered:
98 caves
and 44 pits. Some of the most known ones are Rakovička pećina (cave) and
Stopića pećina (Stopić's cave) cave, which is the greatest object of the
underground relief.
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Th
e C l i m a t e
The climate on Zlatibor is subalpic and
healthy. There are minimal tempereture fluctuations and there are more than
2.0OO sunny hours a year. Its everage annual temperature is 7,5 degrees
Centigrade, and its everage daily temperature is
18 degrees. In winter it is low. The highest daily temperature was 33,6 degrees in
the year 1962 and the lowest was - 23,1 degree in 1954. The winters are rather long
and cold so negative temperatures in april and october are quite a normal
phenomenon.
There are about 1OO snowy days convenient for skiing.
Summers are warm with fresh evenings and they are limited to the period june -
september. The hottest days are in july and august. The fog is not often here especially in the central part;
if it comes it doesn't stay long. But it occurs that the clouds low down and cover
the mountain peaks which are higher than 1OOO m.
Relative air humidity varies during the day. It is maximal around 7 A.M. and
minimal around 2 P.M. From medical point of view subalpic climate is favourable for
healing bronchial asthma and other allergic diseases.
One of important climate factors are the winds, which have an influence on
evaporation of vegetation and ground. The northeastern winds are most often and
strongest, they blow during the whole year but they are the strongest from
October till May. They lower the temperature. The southwestern and southern winds
usually blow from autumn till spring and they bring warmer air masses.
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St
o p i c ' s c a v e
Stopić's cave is situated on the northeast side of the Zlatibor
mountain. It is situated 25O km from Belgrade, 3O km from Užice and 19 km from
Užice - Adriatic Sea highway. The road Užice - Sirogojno goes above the cave.
Stopić's cave is a river cave; Trnavian brook passes throuh it. The cave consists
of three speleological and hydrological horizons: periodicly flooded,
river's horizon, and the youngest, horizon of cracks.
Stopić's cave (without the youngest system)
is 1691,5 m long, it covers the area of 7911,5 square metres and has the space volume of over 12O.OOO
m3. The entrance to the cave is located at 711,18 m above the sea
level. The limestone layer in the cave (originating from Trias) is over 1OO m
thick. The entrance is impressive (3O - 4O m wide and 18 m high) and the climate in the cave is
under the influence of external climate:during the winter it is cold, and during
the summer it is warm. The brook's water also contributes to the microclimate of
the cave.
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The cave consists of five wholnesses:Light
Hall, Dark Hall, Large Room with Rimstone Pools ("bigrene kade")and Brook canal.
The touristic part of the cave is not rich in speleothem but has some atractive
elements: a lare entrance, karst windows, "Dog's grave"
screetauls, "Source of life" waterfall, and above all, series of rimestone
pools, the larest and the deepest
(over 7 m) in the caves in Serbia. The rimstone pools are periodically flooded
and some of them became the lakes.
(The data taken from the book
"Stopića pećina",
by Dr. Radenko Lazarević)
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