Late Cretaceous and Miocene collisions of the Arabian, Anatolian and Eurasian plates, as
shown by widespread ophiolitic exposures along the suture, created favourable geological conditions
for the formation of the surface and subsurface structures in the Gaziantep Basin, southeast Turkey.
The late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) emplacement of the Kocali–Karadut ophiolite complex induced
subsidence in the northwestern zone of the Kastel Basin during the early Alpine Orogeny and influenced
the structural evolution of the foreland area. The Dead Sea Fault, which originated in the Red
Sea in Miocene time, propagated towards the northwest in the Suez Gulf and the north-northeast in
southeast Turkey, and influenced the structural evolution of the Gaziantep Basin. These two major
tectonic events produced many thrusts, thrust-related subsurface and surface anticlines, faults, fractures,
flower structures and basaltic flows in the area. Geological and geophysical investigations indicate
the existence of two important structural phases. The older structures were formed during the late
Cretaceous movements, but they have been reactivated by latest Miocene tectonic activities with
appearance of the Strands of the Dead Sea Fault in the sedimentary basin. The geothermal studies
show also that, as a result of the Tertiary transgressions and volcanic activity, the northern and southern
sectors of the Gaziantep Basin underwent differing subsidence and structural histories.