Upper Rhine Plain

The Upper Rhine Plain,[1] Rhine Rift Valley[2] or Upper Rhine Graben[3] (German: Oberrheinische Tiefebene, Oberrheinisches Tiefland or Oberrheingraben, French: Vallée du Rhin) is a major rift, about 350-kilometre-long (220 mi) and on average 50-kilometre-wide (31 mi), between Basel in the south and the cities of Frankfurt/Wiesbaden in the north. Its southern section straddles the France–Germany border. It forms part of the European Cenozoic Rift System, which extends across Central Europe. The Upper Rhine Graben formed during the Oligocene, as a response to the evolution of the Alps to the south. It remains active to the present day. Today, the Rhine Rift Valley forms a downfaulted trough through which the river Rhine flows.

  1. ^ Dickinson, Robert E. (1964). Germany: A regional and economic geography (2nd ed.). London: Methuen.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Elkins was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Dèzes, P.; Schmid S.M.; Ziegler P.A. (2004). "Evolution of the European Cenozoic Rift System: interaction of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogens with their foreland lithosphere" (PDF). Tectonophysics. 389 (1–2): 1–33. Bibcode:2004Tectp.389....1D. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2004.06.011. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2011. Retrieved June 3, 2010.