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21-633: The Alzey Hills, which belong to the northern part of the Upper Rhine Plain , lie in the east of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate within the counties of Alzey-Worms and Donnersbergkreis . To the south they run into the Rhenish Hesse Hills and to the east into the Palatine Uplands . To the east they extend as far as the Wonnegau . The hills, which derive their name from the town of Alzey in

42-471: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain , Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben ( 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

63-767: Is a cluster of volcanic hills to the northwest of Freiburg, within the Rhine Graben. The highest point of this small, isolated volcanic centre is the Totenkopf (557 metres). Volcanic activity was most prevalent in the Miocene epoch, some 15 million years ago. Today, the Kaiserstuhl volcano is extinct. In 1356, the Basel earthquake occurred in the Rhine Plain. It was perhaps the most destructive earthquake ever in northwest Europe , destroying

84-624: Is an orogenic phase in the Late Mesozoic (Eoalpine) and the current Cenozoic that has formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt . The Alpine orogeny is caused by the continents Africa , Arabia and India and the small Cimmerian Plate colliding (from the south) with Eurasia in the north. Convergent movements between the tectonic plates (the African Plate , the Arabian Plate and

105-941: The Zollstock (300.3 m; between Immesheim and Rüssingen ), the Saukopf (296.4 m; near Immesheim), the Kahlenberg (305 m; near Kindenheim ) and the ridge of Gerstenberg with the Quirnheimer Berg (316.6 m; near Quirnheim ). The hills are bisected by the upper reaches of the Selz and the Seebach and the middle courses of the Pfrimm and the Eisbach . 49°41′N 8°9′E  /  49.683°N 8.150°E  / 49.683; 8.150 This Rhineland-Palatinate location article

126-755: The Indian Plate from the south, the Eurasian Plate and the Anatolian Sub-Plate from the north, and many smaller plates and microplates) had already begun in the early Cretaceous , but the major phases of mountain building began in the Paleocene to Eocene. The process continues currently in some of the Alpide mountain ranges. The Alpine orogeny is considered one of the three major phases of orogeny in Europe that define

147-545: The Odenwald on the eastern side. The extension induced by the formation of the Alps was sufficient to thin the crust and provide suitable dilational conduits for magmatic and volcanic activity to occur. This resulted in the emplacement of mafic dykes , which follow the general structural trend of the extensional faults. In addition, isolated volcanoes such as the Kaiserstuhl were formed. The Kaiserstuhl (literally "Emperor's Chair")

168-1369: The Rif , the Baetic Cordillera , the Cantabrian Mountains , the Pyrenees , the Alps , the Apennine Mountains , the Dinaric Alps , the Accursed Mountains (Albanides), the Pindus (Hellenides), the Carpathians , the Balkanides (the Balkan Mountains and Rila - Rhodope massifs ), the Pontic Mountains , the Taurus , the Antitaurus , the Armenian Highlands , the Caucasus , the Alborz ,

189-766: The Weald–Artois Anticline in Southern England and northern France, the remains of which can be seen in the chalk ridges of the North and South Downs in southern England. Its effects are particularly visible on the Isle of Wight , where the Chalk Group and overlying Eocene strata are folded to near-vertical, as seen in exposures at Alum Bay and Whitecliff Bay , and on the Dorset coast near Lulworth Cove . Stresses arising from

210-871: The Zagros , the Hajar , the Hindu Kush , the Pamir , the Karakoram , and the Himalayas . Sometimes other names occur to describe the formation of separate mountain ranges: for example Carpathian orogeny for the Carpathians , Hellenic orogeny for the Pindus , Altai orogeny for the Altai Mountains or the Himalayan orogeny for the Himalayas . The Alpine orogeny has also led to the formation of more distant and smaller geological features such as

231-624: The basin. To the west, in France, these hills are known as the Vosges mountain range and in the east, in Germany, the hills comprise the Black Forest . These ranges exhume the same types of rocks in their cores, including deep crustal gneiss . Both ranges correspond to uplifts of more than 2,500 metres, much of which has since been eroded. This uplift has occurred because of the isostatic response associated with

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252-663: 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

273-580: The city of Basel and flattening buildings as far as 200 km away. It was the most significant historic seismological event to have occurred in Central Europe. Its epicenter was between Waldkirch and St. Peter in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald . However, it remains disputed whether the fault that ruptured to cause this earthquake was part of the Rhine Valley extensional system, or simply one of

294-472: The formation of an extensional basin. As a consequence, the highest mountains exist immediately adjacent to the margin of the basin, and become increasingly low outwards. The boundaries between the hill ranges and the Rhine Graben are defined by major, normal fault zones. The northern section of the Rhine Plain is equally framed by somewhat lower mountain ranges, the Palatinate Forest on the western and

315-700: The geology of that continent, along with the Caledonian orogeny that formed the Old Red Sandstone Continent when the continents Baltica and Laurentia collided in the early Paleozoic , and the Hercynian or Variscan orogeny that formed Pangaea when Gondwana and the Old Red Sandstone Continent collided in the middle to late Paleozoic. These mountains include (from west to east) the Atlas ,

336-623: The many thrust faults that make up the Alps to the south. Doubts have been raised over the adequacy of the seismic evaluation and design of the Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant , built in the Rhine Plain close to the faults. Located below the plain, the Upper Rhine aquifer – one of the largest in Europe – holds an estimated 45,000 km (11,000 cu mi) of fresh water and supplies some 3 million people in France and Germany, supplying 75% of their drinking water and 50% of

357-424: The north, lie roughly between Wörrstadt in the north, Alsheim in the northeast, Westhofen and Monsheim in the east, Grünstadt in the southeast, Wattenheim in the south, Eisenberg in the southwest and Kirchheimbolanden in the south. The Alzey Hills, which are covered by loess , lime and marl -rich soils, are dominated by agriculture . In many areas it is a cultural landscape used, particularly on

378-579: The river Rhine flows. The Upper Rhine Plain was formed during the Early Cenozoic era, during the Late Eocene epoch. At this time, the Alpine Orogeny , the major mountain building event that was to produce the Alps , was in its early stages. The Alps were formed because the continents of Europe and Africa collided. It is thought that because the collision was irregular , the initial contact between

399-689: The southern slopes of the hills, for viticulture and, especially in the south, for arable farming . It is part of the foreland for the Palatine Uplands with sharper relief that the Rhenish Hesse Hills to the north. In the west, in the transition zone to the Palatine Uplands, the Alzey Hills are wooded in places. Amongst the hills of the region that descends from west to east from heights of over 300 m above  sea level (NN) to around 120 m above NN (near Westhofen), are

420-407: The two continents resulted in the formation of dilational (extensional) structures in the foreland basin to the north of the Alps. The result was substantial crustal thinning, forming a major extensional graben and causing isolated volcanic activity. The stretch factor is estimated to be ~2. To both the east and west of the Rhine Plain, two major hill ranges have formed that run the length of

441-587: The water used by industry. Since the 1970s it has suffered increasingly serious pollution from nitrates , pesticides , chloride and VOCs . A collaboration of 25 universities and government agencies have been researching seismic hazards, neotectonics, and water management of the Quaternary Graben fill. The research focuses on four themes: 48°57′54″N 8°14′02″E  /  48.9650°N 8.2340°E  / 48.9650; 8.2340 Alpine Orogeny The Alpine orogeny or Alpide orogeny

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