It borders the Black Sea to the southeast, Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, and Moldova to the east.
It includes the Main Tethyan Suture (the deformed remains of the Tethys Ocean crust) between the Foreapulian Block and the continental margin of Europe.
Rifting began in the early Mesozoic, in the North Dobogrea-South Crimea Aulacogen, likely related to the strike-slip movement of the Tornquist-Teysseire Lineament.
The opening of the Black Sea forced the increasingly deformed Moesian Platform to the west and molasse basins developed around the rising Carpathians in the Neogene.
Gold-silver deposited hydrothermally in the Neogene, while porphyry copper formed through the Paleocene in the calc-alkaline arc of the South Carpathians and Apuseni Mountains.