Ben Johnson, a PhD student from the University of Oxford, describes his experiences from fieldwork over the summer of 2021. Read on to find out more about the Alai valley, glacial histories, and shortening across the northern margin of the Pamir.
The South Caspian Basin (SCB) is an aseismic block that moves independently to its surroundings. Together with the Arabia-Eurasia collision, it controls the active tectonics of Turkmenistan. The directions, rates, and rotation poles of the SCB relative to Iran and Eurasia are not well resolved. In a new paper recently published in TECTONICS, we constrain the motion of the SCB by measuring the slip rate of the Main Kopeh Dagh Fault (MKDF) in Turkmenistan. Here’s what we found:
In November 2021 two of us (Ian Pierce and Richard Walker) were able to travel to Baku to begin a collaborative project between the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and the University of Oxford addressing regional tectonics, active faulting, and earthquake hazard. The project was due to begin in early 2020 but was postponed due to travel restrictions.
On 25 October, 2021, Richard Walker from the University of Oxford gave the fourth talk of our lecture series on the tectonics of Central Asia. The topic was “Active Faulting, earthquakes, and geomorphology of the Main Kopeh Dagh Fault, Turkmenistan. The talk was presented on 2021-10-25.” . In case you missed Richard’s presentation, here’s the video.
Watch this space for future talks, always on the last Monday of every second month, and follow us on Twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/QuakesCentAsia
In this blog post, Ian Pierce reflects on some of the innovations in aerial survey introduced during his recent fieldwork in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan.
A very interesting webinar will be held on Wednesday, 20th October, 4pm UK / 5pm CEST / 8am PDT in the COMET Webinar series. Ruth Amey from the University of Leeds will talk about the use of satellite technology for seismic hazard studies in Central Asia. The webinar is free, but requires registration here.
Also check out the earlier talks in the COMET webinar series here: https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/!
In the framework of our NATO-funded project SPS G5690 – “Earthquake Hazard and Environmental Security in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan” we will run an ~1 hr online webinar. Kathryn Fitzsimmons from the University of Tübingen will talk about What goes on between the mountains and the deserts? A sedimentary view of past environments along the Tien Shan piedmont. The webinar is open for everyone interested and will be held via zoom (https://uni-jena-de.zoom.us/j/8941887790 Meeting-ID: 894 188 7790; Password: EQAsia).
Date: 25 October, 2021
Time: 3 pm UK time (3 pm London; 4 pm Berlin & Paris; 10 pm Beijing; 7 am San Francisco)
Our team has published a new paper on the seismic hazard in the Almaty region, Kazakhstan. We use high resolution satellite imagery to map faults around Almaty, Kazakhstan, and then use GEM’s OpenQuake to calculate shaking, damage and losses to the city from earthquake scenarios. Here’s what we found.
The COMET Central Asia Fault Database integrates decades of fault mapping and field-studies by researchers from the UK NERC Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET), and global collaborators.
Central Asia is home to one of the world’s great mountain ranges–the Tien Shan–which is formed by vigorous crustal convergence across a multitude of tectonic faults. Here we describe the motivation to assemble the database and the choices that we have made in its structure, which are based on utility, necessity, and limitations in available information. We are working towards a full public release of the dataset, so keep an eye out!
On 28 June, 2021, Marc Jolivet from Geosciences Rennes gave the third talk of our lecture series on the tectonics of Central Asia. The topic was The Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonic, topographic, and climate evolution of the Tian Shan region: an insight from geomorphology and sediment analysis. In case you missed Marc’s presentation, here’s the video.
Watch this space for future talks, always on the last Monday of every second month, and follow us on Twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/QuakesCentAsia