Abstract The well-understood Neogene Pannonian Basin was superimposed on an earlier, mostly Cretaceous compressional realm. Based on the interpretation of subsurface data sets, such as academic and industry reflection seismic and well data, the Eoalpine units of the Eastern Alps can and should be correlated beneath the northwest Pannonian Basin with corresponding tectonic units of the Western Carpathians. Similarly, the Eoalpine folded belt beneath the southeast Pannonian Basin has a structural style very similar to that of the internal part of the Eastern and Southern Carpathians. The level of understanding of these folded belts subcropping at the base of the Pannonian Basin system is poor compared to those of the existing models of the classical folded belt of the Carpathians. This mismatch is primarily caused by the subsurface nature of the problem and the pronounced overprint by Neogene extensional tectonics. In the Pannonian Basin, several well-established and a few emerging exploration plays can be outlined. The key elements of the most important plays include Neogene compactional anticlines; structures related to neotectonic inversion and tectonic reactivation; stratigraphic traps in the deepest part of Neogene subbasins; Paleogene sandstones in structural traps; Senonian–Triassic carbonates in complex structural traps; and Mesozoic reservoirs in the Eoalpine (Cretaceous) and Mesoalpine (Paleogene) folded belts. The future of hydrocarbon exploration in the Pannonian Basin is largely the function of better geophysical imaging and advanced geological understanding of what lies beneath the mature Neogene extensional basin. Copyright ©2006. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. DOI:10.1306/985733M843141

Abstract 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.