Thrust propagation through previously rifted continental margins may result in fold and thrust belts whose structure is strongly controlled by the inherited basin architecture, as it occurs in southern Italy. The Lagonegro units of the southern Apennines comprise a deformed pelagic basin succession showing variable stratigraphic characteristics, mainly lateral variations in both facies and thickness, interpreted to be due to a complex basin topography related to a Triassic rifting event. In contrast to previous studies, cross-section balancing and restoration indicate that the Lagonegro units exposed in the high Agri Valley area suffered relatively limited internal shortening (8 km, i.e. 35%). Early deformation of these rocks, later incorporated into a large-displacement thrust sheet, was dominated by folding around (present-day) roughly north–south-trending axes. The attainment of a regional décollement level was favoured by an early mild inversion of the basin, producing a roughly similar structural elevation of both hanging-wall and footwall successions to Mesozoic faults. Most of the contractional deformation was accommodated by buckling of the Mesozoic syn-rift strata between synsedimentary faults, which represented major mechanical interfaces. Early strain localization in the Lagonegro Basin ahead of the active thrust front was most probably mechanically controlled by a faulted crustal segment which originally lay, within the continental margin, between two massive carbonate platforms.

The southern Adria microplate is the common foreland for the Hellenide and Southern Apennine thrust belts. The Apulian Platform dominates the microplate; outcrop, well and seismic data allow us to trace the carbonate platform edge, whilst structural analysis, geophysical and palaeomagnetic data provide important clues to the geodynamic evolution of the region. The present structural fabric of Apulia is dominated by several E‐W lineaments that divide the region into different blocks (Rospo Plateau, Gargano Promontory, Murge Ridge, Salento Peninsula, Apulian Plateau). One such lineament (the Pescara Dubrovnik ‘Line’, a prominent feature traversing the Adriatic Sea between central Italy and southern Croatia) has been active since the early Mesozoic, when it acted as a major transform fault controlling sedimentation along the northern margin of Southern Adria. During the Cenozoic the Pescara‐Dubrovnik underwent predominantly vertical and oblique movement due to a differential flexural response of the platform and the adjacent pelagic sequences to the thrust belt loading. In Tertiary time the Southern Adria microplate was partly involved in HeIlenide collision. The Apulian platform can be considered as an area of thicker crust more resistant to underthrusting than the surrounding basins. During the orogenic events it acted as a passive rigid indentor, causing local distortion of the most external Hellenide structures. The dextral transpressive activity recorded along the south‐east margin of this indentor (Kephallinia line) can be interpreted as the result of the oblique collision between the margin of the thick Apulian Platform (in this zone NNE‐SSW striking) and the NW‐SE striking Hellenic thrust belt. Horizontal stress generated during the collision was partly transmitted to the rigid foreland re‐activating palaeo E‐W faults within the south Adria microplate in a dextral strike‐slip sense. The clockwise rotation recorded in the Salento Peninsula can be explained by the rotation of several NW‐SE striking faulted blocks. The rotation was accompanied by the opening of small transtensional basins between blocks. This block rotation was caused by the dextral shear that is expressed along the North and the South Salento Fault Zones.

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Thrust-related anticlines in the Zagros Simply Folded Belt provide excellent exposed analogue structures for fractured reservoirs located in the more external sectors of the belt. In these structures it is possible to study the fracture network attributes and understand their relationships to the folding process, thus gathering fundamental information for fracture modelling in reservoirs. In this work we analyse the mesoscopic deformation pattern of the NW–SE-trending Bangestan anticline (SW Zagros, Iran) and discuss its relationship to the kinematic evolution of the hosting structure. The deformation pattern mostly includes extensional structures and pressure solution cleavages striking parallel to the fold axial trend (i.e. longitudinal), transversal extensional structures, and N–S- and E–W-striking extensional structures (oriented oblique to the fold axis). With the aid of deep wells and a transversal reflection seismic profile, we constructed a balanced cross-section of the anticline and propose a kinematic evolution pathway constrained by the mesoscopic deformation pattern. Longitudinal and transversal deformation structures developed before and/or in the very early stages of fold growth. During this stage, the Bangestan anticline grew as a set of unconnected décollement anticlines involving the Cambrian to Pliocenic sedimentary cover. In a later stage, inherited basement faults were reactivated with a right-lateral strike-slip component and the previously developed anticlines propagated laterally up to their complete linkage and thrust breakthrough. This produced the right-lateral strike-slip reactivation of longitudinal joints and the development of N–S- and E–W-striking extensional structures, which were also frequently reworked as strike-slip faults.

The North Western Mediterranean Basin developed during the Oligocene-Miocene rifting of the Eastern Iberian-European magma-poor continental margin. The margin developed as a result of back-arc extension associated with the roll-back of the retreating Calabrian-Tethys subduction zone. Reinterpretation of 2D regional seismic reflection data suggests that rifting took place by hyperextension of the Iberian-European lithosphere. This process led to the seaward arrangement of distinct crustal domains, namely proximal, necking and distal, whose distribution has been partly controlled by the presence of transfer faults accommodating different amounts of backarc extension. The late post-rift Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) gave place to significant margin erosion and canyon incision whose lowstand sedimentary byproducts were largely deposited prior to the Messinian evaporitic sequences.Mesozoic-Cenozoic and Messinian to recent salt tectonics events have been recognized.Such new understanding yields a distinct regional hydrocarbon play concept for continental shelf to deep waters, including pre-salt, Messinian and post-salt plays.