"groundwater that recharges at high elevation migrates through the subsurface in response to its high potential energy toward areas where the water table is lower." Hydrocarbon migration Bethke & Marshak (1990) explain that petroleum migrates not only in response to the hydrodynamic forces that drive groundwater flow, but to the buoyancy and capillary effects of the petroleum moving through microscopic pores. Migration patterns flow away from the orogenic belt and into the cratonic interior. Frequently, natural gas is found closer to the orogen and oil is found further away. Modern (Cenozoic) foreland basin systems Asia Ganges Basin Pro-foreland to the south of the Himalaya, in northern India and Pakistan Began to form 65 million years ago during the collision of India and Eurasia Filled with a sedimentary succession more than 12 km thick Northern Tarim Basin Pro-foreland to the south of the Tian Shan Formed initially during the Late Paleozoic, during the Carboniferous and Devonian Rejuvenated during the Cenozoic as a result of far field stress associated with the India-Eurasia collision and the renewed uplift of the Tian Shan Thickest sedimentary section is beneath Kashgar, where Cenozoic sediment is more than 10,000 metres thick Southern Junggar Basin Retro-foreland to the north of the Tian Shan Formed initially during the Late Paleozoic and rejuvenated during the Cenozoic Thickest sedimentary section is west of Urumqi, where Mesozoic sediment is more than 8,000 metres thick Middle East Persian Gulf Foreland to the west of the Zagros mountains Underfilled stage Terrestrial part of the basin covers parts of Iraq and Kuwait Europe North Alpine Basin (the Molasse Basin) Peripheral foreland basin to the north of the Alps, in Austria, Switzerland, Germany and France. Formed during the Palaeocene to Neogene (65.5-2.6 Ma) convergence and collision between Eurasia and the Adriatic Plate Complications arise in the formation of the Rhine Graben Po Basin, northern Italy. Retro-foreland basin of the Western and Central Southern Alps and pro-foreland of the Northern Apennines. It developed through extensional phases followed by compressional stages. Its compressional architecture is overprinted on the inherited extensional framework. The compressional architecture "developed intermittently at the front of two different mountain chains, the Northern Apennines and the Southern Alps, progressively converging one towards the other." There were two extensional cycles: a) Eastward pre-rift extension cycles culminating in the Anisian to Carnian (middle to early late Triassic, 247-227 Ma) cycle formation of the carbonate platform and basin