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Geography
The land part of the national park
is a typical karst terrain made of carbonate rocks, 
mainly limestone, and it therefore displays most of the karst phenomena
-- cracks, cavities, sinkholes, depressions, grottoes, and a variety
of erosive, corrosive and abrasive forms of rock. Kornati, like the
whole of the northern Adriatic, were separated from the mainland only
when the sea level rose following the melting of ice.
Though the whole of the eastern Adriatic
coast is highly indented, the Kornati group is exceptional even compared
with the rest of the Croatian coast, and the resulting land and seascape
is unique and unrivalled. The islands form four series running strictly
parallel with the Dinaric range (northwest-southeast). They are named
after the largest island in the group, Kornat, which provides the central
backbone for the whole archipelago. The boundaries of the group are Dugi
Otok in the northwest, the Zirje islands in the southeast, the islands
of Pasman, Vrgada and Murter towards the mainland, and the open sea in
the southwest. The length of the archipelago (northwest-southeast) is
25 km, and its greatest width (northeast-southwest) 13 km.
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