<p>Since Miocene times, the crustal thinning in eastern Betics and the Alboran region associated with westward slab retreat led to the formation and exhumation of metamorphic domes and EW-directed narrow basins.</p><p>The Tabernas basin preserves a sedimentary records of the last stages of metamorphic domes exhumation (14 to 8 Ma). Structural constraints from fault patterns and sedimentary archives show evidence in the field for E-W strike-slip faults that developed close to dome-basin contacts. The evolution of strike-slip faulting and extensional basins reveals strain partitioning during the late Miocene that is consistent with the present-day regional NNW-directed compression and WSW-directed/orogen-parallel extension that result from the NW-SE Africa-Europe plate convergence. A regional cross-section further emphasizes the role of crustal-scale strike-slip faulting and slab detachment and delamination under the Alboran domain.</p><p>Calcite veins that developed during the orogen-parallel extension in the metamorphic basement and the Tortonian sedimentary rocks show a wide variety of stable isotopes ratios. Calcite cements have &#948;¹⁸O values ranging from -17.23&#8240; to -5.30&#8240; for, and from -15.77&#8240; to -1.6&#8240; for &#948;¹³C isotopic ratios. This patterns is interpreted to reflect the increase of freshwater input buffered by the composition of host carbonate rocks.</p><p>Continental carbonates of Quaternary ages are widespread in the Tabernas basin. Travertines show a close structural relationship with N170 and N50 normal faults, implying tectonically-controlled Ca/CO₂ leakages. Their &#948;¹³C values are compatible with a hydrothermal origin from a deep-seated carbon source (&#948;¹⁸O median of -7.5&#8240;, &#948;¹³C median of 2.1&#8240;). Degassing associated with regional volcanism from the Serravallian until the Tortonian-Messinian ages is likely to be also the main vector of recent CO₂ storages in rocks. The U-Th ages of travertines, ranging from 8ka &#177; 0.2 to 354ka &#177;76, further outline interactions with captive aquifer from 350ka and subsequent Ca/CO₂ leakages due to geodynamic changes.</p>