Upper Rhine Plain: Difference between revisions

The '''Upper Rhine Plain''',<ref>{{Dickinson's Germany}}</ref> '''Rhine Rift Valley'''<ref name="Elkins" /> or '''Upper Rhine Graben'''<ref name="Dèzes">{{cite journal|last=Dèzes|first=P.|author2=Schmid S.M.|author3=Ziegler P.A.|year=2004|title=Evolution of the European Cenozoic Rift System: interaction of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogens with their foreland lithosphere|journal=[[Tectonophysics (journal)|Tectonophysics]]|volume=389|pages=1–33|doi=10.1016/j.tecto.2004.06.011|url=http://pages.unibas.ch/earth/tecto/research/dezes_ziegler.pdf|accessdate=June 3, 2010|bibcode=2004Tectp.389....1D|deadurlurl-status=yesdead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927151514/http://pages.unibas.ch/earth/tecto/research/dezes_ziegler.pdf|archivedate=September 27, 2011|df=}}</ref> ([[German language|German]]: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', [[French language|French]]: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major [[rift]], about {{convert|350|km|mi|adj=mid|-long}} and on average {{convert|50|km|mi|adj=mid|-wide}}, between [[Basel]] in the south and the cities of [[Frankfurt]]/[[Wiesbaden]] in the north. Its southern section straddles the border between [[France]] and [[Germany]]. 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 and remains active to the present day. Today, the Rhine Rift Valley forms a downfaulted trough through which the river [[Rhine]] flows.