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While smaller groups within the Alps may be easily defined by the passes on either side, defining larger units can be problematic. A traditional divide exists between the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, which uses the Splügen Pass (Italian: Passo dello Spluga) on the Swiss-Italian border, together with the Rhine to the north and Lake Como in the south as the defining features.
The Alps continue fairly smoothly into the following related Alpine mountain ranges: the Apennines to the southwest, the Dinarides to the southeast and the Carpathians to the northeast. In the east the Alps are bounded by the Viennese Basin and the Pannonian Basin, where east–west stretching of the crust takes place.
Oberhalbstein (Julier Pass connects to the Inn basin) Albulatal, Bergün, Preda (Albula Pass connects to the Inn basin) Averstal; Splügen Pass connects to the Mera basin, San Bernardino Pass to the Moesa basin; anterior Rhine. Safien valley; Lumnezia Vals Valley; Surselva (Oberalppass connects to the Reuss basin, Lukmanier Pass to the Leventina)
In geology, the name "molasse basin" is sometimes also used in a general sense for a synorogenic (formed contemporaneously with the orogen) foreland basin of the type north of the Alps. The basin is the type locality of molasse, a sedimentary sequence of conglomerates and sandstones, material that was removed from the developing mountain chain ...
The Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area includes the largest glaciers of the Alps. There are glaciers in the four major drainage basins of Switzerland. The Rhine and Rhône basins are located on the northern side of the Alps while the Po basin is located on the south side of the Alps. The Danube basin is located on
The Alps extend in an arc from France in the south and west to Slovenia in the east, and from Monaco in the south to Germany in the north. The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in an 800 km (500 mi) arc (curved line) from east to west and is 200 km (120 mi) in width.
Main chain of the Alps. The main chain of the Alps, also called the Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the drainage divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest peaks of a range.
Po near source in the Western Alps. The Po Valley and the Adriatic overlay a foreland basin and a system of deeply buried ancient canyons surviving from the tectonic collision of an offshore land mass, Tyrrhenis, with the mainland, an incident within the collision of the African and Eurasian plates.