Molasse basin
![The Bavarian Alps rise from the green hills of the Molasse basin. The hills consist of tilted molasse beds, erosional material transported from the mountains into their foreland.](/Images/godic/202501/27/Bavarian_Alps_20020302.jpg")
![Alternating grey fluviatile sands and red silty marls of the Lower Freshwater Molasse at Wallenried, Switzerland.](/Images/godic/202501/27/USM_fluviatile_sandstone_Wallenried0302.JPG")
The Molasse basin is a foreland basin north of the Alps which formed during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. The basin formed as a result of the flexure of the European plate under the weight of the orogenic wedge of the Alps that was forming to the south.