This project involves a field-based structural and geochronological study of a late Cenozoic sedimentary basin (Aksu Basin = AB) in southwestern Turkey to document its tectonic evolution within the framework of the geodynamics of the eastern Mediterranean region. The AB is one of several NNW-SSE-trending sedimentary basins within the Isparta Angle (IA), an oroclinal bend in the Tauride belt, and displays a complete stratigraphic, structural and tectonic record of the Miocene and younger depocenters in the region. It is 80-km-long, 10-km-wide, and contains Miocene shallow marine sequences and Plio-Pleistocene fluvial-lacustrine deposits, which are deeply incised by the Aksu River. The current tectonic models suggest its flexural basin origin associated with west-directed thrusting during the Miocene-Pliocene. However, my preliminary structural fieldwork indicates that the AB experienced extensional deformation as early as in the Pliocene and onwards, as evidenced by the existence of ENE-WSW-oriented normal faults in the basinal strata. This observation is consistent with the regional tectonics and the focal mechanisms of recent earthquakes in the western Tauride belt, and requires more systematic, quantitative structural work in the basin to elucidate its development in a transtensional regime. The main objective of my project is to: document the structural architecture of the AB, and the distribution, patterns and kinematics of faults and faulting that affected the basinal strata; examine the spatial-temporal relationships between deposition and faulting during basin evolution; and develop a regionally coherent tectonic model for the development of the AB, using the new data and results.