Displacement rates

The measuring station in darmstadtium is one of only four locations in the Upper Rhine Graben where a continuous measurement of the relative movements at the trench edge faults takes place. The measurement data so far show an inclined lowering of the Upper Rhine Graben relative to the Odenwald with velocities of several tenths of a millimetre per year. This sounds like little at first, but adds up to considerable amounts over geological periods: 1 millimetre per year corresponds to one kilometre per million years. The movement, composed of a vertical and a horizontal component, fits very well into the supra-regional tectonic image.