The Mura-Zala basin was born due to crustal extension between ~18 and~13 Ma. Extension resulted in half grabens and fastly subsiding basin floor. However, metamorphic rocks and Neogene magmatites were exhumed synchronously at the western basin margin, probably along low-angle ductile shear zones. After a late Miocene thermal phase and a Pliocene folding of the southernmost half grabens, all the area suffered a uniform, ~30º counterclockwise rotation.