Overview

During the construction work on the darmstadtium, the disturbance in the excavation pit was very clearly visible. It separates the light granodiorite of the Odenwald from the darker, reddish river deposits of the Upper Rhine Graben. This particular geological situation was used in 2007 to set up a permanent measuring station to determine the relative movements of the fault.
The measuring station is located at the northeastern edge of the former excavation pit and is accessible from the basement of the darmstadtium (not public). Two windows in the former excavation pit offer a direct view of the disturbance. In the course of a renovation in 2018, the measuring station was instrumented with further instruments, so that today there is a combination of geoscientific measuring apparatus for the detection of active tectonic movements that is unique in Europe. The measuring station is integrated into extensive geological, geophysical and geodetic research work dealing with crustal deformation and seismicity in the northern Upper Rhine Graben. Furthermore, the measuring station and the results of the various measurement series will be presented in courses.