We report on initial results from a new project providing up-to-date active fault maps and earthquake potential in the vicinity of proposed hydropower plants in central Kyrgyzstan. The project includes primary research and a series of training and networking activities. It is funded through the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).
Though most of our work is focused in the earthquake-prone regions of Asia, many of the methods we employ have general applicability, and there are many similarities in the landscape and structural development along major compressional mountain ranges worldwide. Last year we were contacted by Prof. Afaf Amine from Mohammad V University in Rabat, Morocco, who invited our team to visit and help define a programme of active fault studies around the Atlas mountains.
In a new article for the Royal Society of Asian Affairs blog, Richard Walker uses examples largely from Iran to talk through some of the reasons why populations are often focussed in regions of earthquake hazard, and why there is an urgent need to increase resilience.
Earthquake Hazard in Asia: A Growing Problem – The Royal Society for Asian Affairs
It has been a real pleasure to spend the last two weeks in Mongolia, after a break of 11 years since my last visit. The reason was to attend the 1st Environmental Hazards in Asia meeting, hosted by the Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (IAG) of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, and with kind support through the Association Academies and Scientific Societies of Asia (AASSA), Rio Tinto and Oyu Tolgoi, COMET, the Mount Paektu Research Center, and others. I was honoured to be included as part of the organizing committee.
A joint team from Oxford, the Institute of Seismology in Bishkek, and the National Nuclear Center in Almaty undertook several weeks of fieldwork in July and August of 2024, within the framework of our NATO SPS project on environmental security in the Tien Shan. Our particular interest in this field project was to investigate evidences for active faulting and to assess the types and frequency of earthquakes that might occur on faults in the Toktogul basin. The main road connecting North and South Kyrgyzstan passes through this valley, and there are several existing and proposed hydropower plants along the Naryn river. Understanding the distribution of active faults, the styles and magnitudes of earthquakes, and the timing of past events is therefore important for estimating earthquake hazard to the infrastructure, as well as to local populations.
Julie Losen describes her recently published article presenting the first results of the analysis of the giant Beshkiol landslide and its associated lakes in Kyrgyzstan. The work is now published in the journal ‘Geomorphology’
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169555X24000710
Ian Pierce describes his recent field trip to Azerbaijan, excavating trenches along the southern Caucasus thrusts and looking for evidence of historical earthquakes.
Krzysztof Gaidzik describes his recent experiences searching for past earthquakes and active faults as part of the Earthquakes in Central Asia project.
Dr. Ian Pierce of the Earth Sciences Department, University of Oxford, gives some very nice examples of active faulting in the Himalaya, the Tien Shan, and in the western United States. He combines an accessible introduction to earthquake geology with plenty of nice field photographs and high resolution imagery and digital topography.
The seminar is available here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEoEGwtMO6k
