Thrace Basin Thrace Basin The European side of Turkey is called the Thrace Basin. It is the largest and thickest Cenozoic sedimentary basin in Turkey. The basin is triangular shaped, trends WNW-ESE and was formed by extension in late Middle Eocene to latest Oligocene times. This gas prone basin is located northwest of Istanbul, Turkey. About 9,000 meters of Eocene-Miocene marine clastics and continental sediments were deposited. Several basement faults were reactivated and underwent strike-slip motion in late Miocene times where the famous North Anatolian Fault bounds the southern part of the basin. The Cenozoic sedimentary succession, overlying Paleozoic to Mesozoic metamorphic
Thrace With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Thracia turned into a battleground territory for the better part of the next 1,000 years. The surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire in the Balkans, later known as the Byzantine Empire, retained control over Thrace until the 8th century when the northern half of the entire region was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire and the remainder was reorganized in the Thracian theme. The Empire regained the lost regions in the late 10th century until the Bulgarians regained control of the northern half at the end of the 12th century. Throughout