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Geological Society, London, Memoirs; 2006; v. 32; p. 191-206;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.MEM.2006.032.01.11
© 2006 Geological Society of London

Europe: Alpine to Present

Formation and deformation of the Pannonian Basin: constraints from observational data

Frank Horváth1, Gábor Bada1,2, Péter Szafián1, Gábor Tari3, Antal Ádám4 & Sierd Cloetingh2

1 Department of Geophysics, Eötvös University, Pázmány P. s. 1/C, 1117 Budapest, Hungary (frankh{at}ludens.elte.hu)
2 Netherlands Research Centre for Integrated Solid Earth Sciences, Department of Tectonics and Structural Geology, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3 Vanco Energy Company, Houston, TX 77046, USA
4 Geodetic and Geophysical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Sopron, Hungary

The past decade has witnessed spectacular progress in the collection of observational data and their interpretation in the Pannonian Basin and the surrounding Alpine, Carpathian and Dinaric mountain belts. A major driving force behind this progress was the PANCARDI project of the EUROPROBE programme. The paper reviews tectonic processes, structural styles, stratigraphic records and geochemical data for volcanic rocks. Structural and seismic sections of different scales, seismic tomography and magnetotelluric, gravity and geothermal data are also used to determine the deformational styles, and to compile new crustal and lithospheric thickness maps of the Pannonian Basin and the surrounding fold-and-thrust belts. The Pannonian Basin is superimposed on former Alpine terranes. Its formation is a result of extensional collapse of the overthickened Alpine orogenic wedge during orogen-parallel extrusion towards a 'free boundary' offered by the roll-back of the subducting Carpathian slab. As a conclusion, continental collision and back-arc basin evolution is discussed as a single, complex dynamic process, with minimization of the potential and deformational energy as the driving principle.