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
Report on the final activity in the NATO-funded project SPS G5690 – “Earthquake Hazard and Environmental Security in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan”: 2024 USA meeting and field trip
Participants:
In a new correspondence published in Nature Geosciences, we emphasize the urgent need for greater earthquake resilience in continental Asia. Recent earthquakes far away from Almaty caused significant shaking in the former capital of Kazakhstan, reminding us that Almaty has been badly damaged by three strong earthquakes in 1887, 1889, and 1911. Back then, the earthquakes also happened on faults distant to the city, but there is a lot of evidence that the city itself sits on a long active fault. Building resilience now, before the next big quake strikes, is urgently needed. This holds true not only for Almaty, but for many other Central Asian cities with large populations that are located on, or very close to, active faults, such as Bishkek, Tashkent, Tehran, or Ashgabat.
Abdrakhmatov, K., Arrowsmith, R., Elliott, J., Grützner, C., Mukambayev, A., Rizza, M., Shnizai Z., Walker, R. T., Weldon, R., & Wilkinson, R. (2024). Urgent need for greater earthquake resilience in continental Asia. Nature Geoscience 17, 818–819.
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.
The first Environmental Hazards in Asia Conference will take place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 12-15 August with a field trip from 16-20 August. This conference aims to bring together practitioners of both with a focus on the hazards across Asia. The workshop will be structured to allow exploration of the underlying physical mechanics of hazards, explore the impacts of historical events across the continent and focus on the possible approaches to minimizing future impacts. The aim is to facilitate new ideas and proposals. Funds to support travel and subsistence to up to 20 participants from across Asia are available.
May 15th – Abstract submission deadline
June 1st – Fieldtrip registration deadline
July 12th – Online registration deadline
Meeting website: www.environmentalhazardsasia.wordpress.com
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
In a 20 mins interview with Space Race, Richard Walker talks about our work on large earthquakes and active faults in Central Asia, tectonic geomorphology, our use of satellite data, DEMs, and much more.
Our team has been working in the Tien Shan for many years now and we are very happy to present one of the key outcomes of our several projects. In the new book Earthquakes of Kyrgyzstan we provide an overview over strong earthquakes that occurred in Kyrgyzstan, both instrumental and from paleoseismological studies. The book is open access and can be downloaded here: