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:
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
We consider some of the reasons why earthquakes have such damaging effects in Afghanistan and surrounding parts of Asia in a new article in Temblor Earthquake News …
In this blog post, Ian Pierce, describes work that he is leading in collaboration with the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences as part of the Leverhulme Trust EROICA and NEPTUNE projects.
A number of earthquake specialists assembled in Aix-en-Provence for a four-day workshop hosted at CEREGE. The workshop is one of the flagship activities within the framework of the NATO SPS Multi-year project ‘Geo-environmental security from earthquakes in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan’. This project involves a consortium of researchers and specialists from Asia (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), from the USA, and from Europe (France, Germany, UK). We aim to develop the underpinning geological data that is required for building effective earthquake resilience, and to compile this data in open access formats that are accessible for researchers within the project focus area of central Asia. We combine that aim with the development of capacity through equipment purchases and through the training of early career researchers from both NATO and NATO partner countries.
On 30 May, Ramon Arrowsmith from Arizona State University talked about Seismotectonics and surface rupture of large intraplate earthquakes: an example from the M7.8 1911 Kebin (Chon Kemin) Earthquake, Northern Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan in the framework of our NATO-funded project SPS G5690 – “Earthquake Hazard and Environmental Security in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan”. In case you missed Ramon’s presentation, here’s the video.
We’re going to have a summer break and commence our webinar series in autumn. Watch this space for future talks, which take place always on the last Monday of every month, and follow us on Twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/QuakesCentAsia.
The Main Kopetdag fault (MKDF) of Turkmenistan is a key tectonic feature within the active tectonics of the Arabia-Eurasia continental collision and the geodynamics of the South Caspian basin. The fault runs along the edge of the Kopetdag (or Kopeh Dagh) mountains, which form the northern margin of the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone. The tectonics are complicated by proximity to the South Caspian Basin, which is an enigmatic ‘block’, filled with up to 20 km of Cenozoic sediment, and possibly floored by oceanic crust of Mesozoic age. The South Caspian is moving relative to its surroundings, with a roughly northwest motion relative to Eurasia that introduces oblique right-lateral and shortening components across the western Kopetdag. The lateral component decreases eastwards as the influence of the Caspian diminishes, and the Kopetdag instead accommodates Arabia-Eurasia shortening.