This year, the annual Große Exkursion (Big Excursion) of the Institut für Geowissenschaften (Institute for Geosciences) der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena will undertake a trip focusing on structure and tectonics across the Alps. This will be led by Prof. Dr.  Kamil Ustaszewski , the head of Structural Geology at the  Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena . This trip will involve two transects across the Central and Eastern portion of the Alpine Mountains over a two-week period during Aug-Sept. Spectacular landscape of Marlomada in the Alps of  Italy The Alps represent a collisional orogen formed broadly during the convergence of the European and Adriatic continents. This process can be traced back as early as 250 million years ago. During this time Europe, North America and Africa were situated very close to each other in what was known as the Supercontinent Pangea. Underlying plate tectonic forces driven by deep convection of the Earth’s Mantle resulted i...