This volume offers an account of the scientific outcome of a Priority Programme (Schwerpunktprogramm) which the Deutsche Forschungsgemein- schaft (DFG; German Research Society) promoted during 6 years from 1976 to 1982. In the understanding of the DFG, a Priority Programme involves the financing and coordination of research efforts of a group of investigators, possibly from several institutions, and is in- tended to concentrate on one particular topic and/or on one maJor area of interest over a period of, as a rule, 5 years. Discussions on the feasibility of a major programme on vertical move- ments started in 1971. The tentative programme was published under the title Terrestrial Vertical Movements in the DFG's planning docu- ment Grauer Plan IV: 1972-1974; p. 152. Deliberations within the Na- tional Committee for the International Geodynamics Project and in the Senate Commission for Joint Research in Earth Sciences (Geokommission) set out the scope of the project and envisaged an investigation of the Rheinische Schild, (i. e. , the Rhenish Massif east and west of the River Rhine). Seventeen geoscientists participated in a round-table dis- cussion on the subject Vertical movements and their causes as exempli- fied in the case of the Rheinische Schild, which took place at Bonn- Bad Godesberg on 8th July 1975. At this meeting the scientific objec- tives came more clearly into focus. A Programme Committee formulated the proposal to be put to the Senate of the DFG.

Table of Contents:
1 Plateau Uplift of the Rhenish Massif - Introductory Remarks.- 2 Regional Tectonic Setting and Geological Structure of the Rhenish Massif.- 3 Pre-Quaternary Uplift in the Central Part of the Rhenish Massif.- 4.1 Plateau Uplift During Pleistocene Time - Preface.- 4.2 The Early Pleistocene Terraces of the Upper Middle Rhine and Its Southern Foreland - Questions Concerning Their Tectonic Interpretation.- 4.3 Distribution and Dimension of Young Tectonics in the Neuwied Basin and the Lower Middle Rhine.- 4.4 The Rhine Valley Between the Neuwied Basin and the Lower Rhenish Embayment.- 4.5 The Tectonic Position of the Lower Mosel Block in Relation to the Tertiary and Old Pleistocene Sediments.- 4.6 Cenozoic Deposits of the Eifel-Hunsrück Area Along the Mosel River and Their Tectonic Implications.- 4.7 Neotectonic Movements at the Southern and Western Boundary of the Hunsruck Mountains (Southwestern Part of the Rhenish Massif).- 4.8 The Lower Pleistocene Terraces of the Lahn River Between Dietz (Limburg Basin) and Laurenburg (Lower Lahn).- 4.9 Quaternary Tectonics and River Terraces at the Eastern Margin of the Rhenish Massif.- 4.10 The Late Tertiary-Quaternary Tectonics of the Palaeozoic of the Northern Eifel.- 4.11 The Quaternary Destruction of an Older, Tertiary Topography Between the Sambre and Ourthe Rivers (Southern Ardennes).- 5.1 Distribution of Volcanic Activity in Space and Time.- 5.2 Tertiary Volcanism of the Hocheifel Area.- 5.3 Volcanism in the Southern Part of the Hocheifel.- 5.4 Tertiary Volcanism in the Siebengebirge Mountains.- 5.5 Tertiary Volcanism in the Westerwald Mountains.- 5.6 Tertiary Volcanism in the Northern Hessian Depression.- 5.7 The Quaternary Eifel Volcanic Fields.- 5.8 Carbon Dioxide in the Rhenish Massif.- 5.9 Eocene to Recent VolcanismWithin the Rhenish Massif and the Northern Hessian Depression - Summary.- 6.1 Height Changes in the Rhenish Massif: Determination and Analysis.- 6.2 Stress Field and Strain Release in the Rhenish Massif.- 6.3 General Pattern of Seismotectonic Dislocation and the Earthquake-Generating Stress Field in Central Europe Between the Alps and the North Sea.- 6.4 Historical Seismicity and Present-Day Microearthquake Activity of the Rhenish Massif, Central Europe.- 6.5 Microearthquake Activity Near the Southern Border of the Rhenish Massif.- 6.6 Geothermal Investigations in the Rhenish Massif.- 6.7 The Gravity Field of the Rhenish Massif.- 7.1 The Long-Range Seismic Refraction Experiment in the Rhenish Massif.- 7.2 Combined Seismic Reflection-Refraction Investigations in the Rhenish Massif and Their Relation to Recent Tectonic Movements.- 7.3 Electrical Conductivity Structure of the Crust and Upper Mantle Beneath the Rhenish Massif.- 7.4 The Evolution of the Hercynian Crust - Some Implications to the Uplift Problem of the Rhenish Massif.- 7.5 Large-Scale Mantle Heterogeneity Beneath the Rhenish Massif and Its Vicinity from Teleseismic P-Residuals Measurements.- 7.6 Crustal Xenoliths in Tertiary Volcanics from the Northern Hessian Depression.- 7.7 Crustal Xenoliths and Their Evidence for Crustal Structure Underneath the Eifel Volcanic District.- 7.8 Mantle Xenoliths in the Rhenish Massif and the Northern Hessian Depression.- 7.9 Relation of Geophysical and Petrological Models of Upper Mantle Structure of the Rhenish Massif.- 8.1 Gravity Anomaly and Density Distribution of the Rhenish Massif.- 8.2 Uplift, Volcanism and Tectonics: Evidence for Mantle Diapirs at the Rhenish Massif.- 9 Epilogue: Mode and Mechanism of Rhenish Plateau Uplift.