Westhessische Senke
As the Cainozoic era began, the West Hesse Depression emerged as part of a great rift valley from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea; the Mediterranean-Mjøsa Zone. This zone is a succession of grabens that run from the Rhone Valley through the Rhine Rift, the Wetterau and the Gießen Basin, below the Vogelsberg foothills to the Amöneburg Basin, and from there over the Neustadt Saddle in the West Hesse Depression and continuing along the Leine Graben to the Oslo Rift valley.