De Noordelijke Peelhorst

The fracture system that runs from the south-east to the north-west throug the Netherlands may be seen as an offshoot from the larger system that runs right across Western Europe and of which the Rhine graben between the Black Forest and the Vosges also forms a part. The northern Peelhorst is, morpho-geologically speaking, an area where the influence of fracture movements on the landscape is still clearly to be observed in the terrain. In a more northernly direction, these results of the fracture movements are, as a consequence of sedimentation, no longer noticeable. For the Peelhorst, a special phenomenon may be mentioned as a particular feature. This shows the curious circumstance that at the location of the fracture line (a.o. Peel border fracture), wet and marshy grounds occur on the higher horst while the lower grounds in the direct vicinity, on the other side of the fracture line, thus in the graben area, give a very dry impression. This situation may be called very unique in the whole of Western Europe. It may, furthermore, be considered extraordinary that, despite the strong erosion in the past, these fracture movements, including their attendant phenomena, are of a nature to make the terrain steps (?), caused by the movements, clearly visible at different places in the terrain.