This Interdivision-type session at EGU 2009 will provide an ideal forum for the presentation and discussion of solid earth research covering the entire Alpine-Himalayan orogen from the Atlantic to China, including the north African margins, Betics, Alps, Carpathians, Hellenides, Taurides, Iranides, Caucasus, Zagros, Karakorum, Tibet and the Himalayas. The Alpine-Himalayan collision zone is an ideal natural laboratory for the study of fundamental processes related to destructional and collisional settings. These include subduction, ophiolite emplacement, oceanic and continental subduction, collision, back-arc and foreland basin evolution and slab roll-back. Our current understanding of the region is underpinned by a wide range of observations of the geology (e.g., stratigraphy, volcanism, structure and tectonics, neotectonics), geophysics (e.g., seismicity, seismic imaging, palaeomagetism) and geodetics (e.g., GPS and gravity). This is also a key region for investigating the coupling between surface and deep processes, including recognition of the seismic signature of the Tethyan ocean within the mantle. Modelling plays a key role, especially as it allows interdisciplinary information to be assembled into testable hypotheses. We invite related contributions from all relevant research disciplines, including geodesy, seismology, geodynamics, tectonics, igneous petrology, structural geology, stratigraphy, paleontology, sedimentology and paleomagnetism. Multi-disciplinary and modelling contributions are particularly welcome. The programme will be organised into regional sub-sessions and poster presentations will play an important role together with oral presentations.