European Cenozoic Rift System

Topographic map with location of ECRIS rift basins: LG=Limagne Graben, BG=Bresse Graben, URG=Upper Rhine Graben, LRG=Lower Rhine Graben, HG=Hessian Grabens & EG=Eger Graben, and Jura mountains with frontal thin-skinned thrust shown

The European Cenozoic Rift System (ECRIS) is a 1,100 km (680 mi) long system of rifts formed in the foreland of the Alps as the lithosphere responded to the effects of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogenies. The system began to form during the Late Eocene and parts (particularly the Upper and Lower Rhine Grabens) remain seismically active today and are responsible for most of the larger earthquakes in Europe, north of the Alps.