Structure and lithostratigraphy of the Romanian Pannonian Super Basin

The Romanian segment of the Pannonian Super Basin (PSB) is located on the eastern flank of the central part of the basin system, and it includes several deep sub-basins. The basin-forming mechanisms on the eastern side of the PSB, or more accurately, the SE Pannonian Basin, highlight similarities with the well-documented ‘Pannonian-type’ extensional processes such as low- and high-strain syn-rift extension during the Miocene. These characteristics make this part of the basin quite different from the Transylvanian Basin further to the east. Pull-apart basins are also found along the Mig–Hungarian Line. These extensional domains are kinematically constrained by strike-fault zones. In detail, the western continuation of the major Bogdan–Dragoş Voda wrench fault in the Romanian segment of the PSB is still under debate and one of the two alternative inferred solutions is suggested to be to link it either to the Tóalmás Fault system or to the Hajdú Fault Zone in the broader Mid-Hungarian Fault Zone. In the southeastern part of the Romanian PSB, the major strike-slip Trans-Banat Fault, extending westward into Serbia, separates various rift sub-basins located to its north and south, featuring genetic variations. The post-rift lithostratigraphy was first described with its local formal units including the challenging Upper Miocene to Pliocene Pannonian succession. Like in most parts of the PSB, outcropping basin fill units at the perimeter of the basin cannot be easily correlated with distal depositional systems in the subsurface. Attempts were made at transborder correlations with Hungary and Serbia, although the diachronism of the Pannonian age lithostratigraphic units remains difficult to validate.