The glacierized area of Uzbekistan is represented in three river basins – the Pskem, the Kashkadarya and the Surhandarya. This study considers the present state of the glaciers and high-mountain lakes distribution in this area based on the analysis and validation of advanced land observing satellite (ALOS)/advanced visible and near infrared radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) […]

Glacial meltwater and ice calving contribute to the flood volume of glacial lakes such as Lake Merzbacher in the Tian Shan Mountains of central Asia. In this study, we simulated the lake’s volume by constructing an empirical relationship between the area of Lake Merzbacher, determined from satellite images, and the lake’s water storage, derived from […]

The presentation describes the methods and shows the results of GLOFs’ danger estimation in Ile and Zhetysu Alatau ranges (Kazakhstan). The catalogues of glacial lakes were made following the results of satellite images processing. The catalogue contains the data of 186 glacial lakes in Ile Alatau and 577 lakes in Zhetysu Alatau. According to the […]

On 24 July 2008, a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF) occurred at the western (w-) Zyndan glacier lake in the Tong District of Ysyk-K¨ol Oblast, Kyrgyzstan. The flood killed three people and numerous livestock, destroyed infrastructure, and devastated potato and barley crops as well as pastures. Tuurasuu village and a downstream reser- voir on the […]

Geographic variability of the recent changes of glacier coverage in the Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia, is assessed using Corona KH-4B satellite photographs for 1968-1971, Landsat 7 ETM+data for 1999-2002, and ALOS/PRISM and AVNIR data for 2006-2008. The four mountain regions investigated (Pskem, Ili-Kungöy, At-Bashy, and SE-Fergana) cover several distributed glacierized areas in the Tien […]

[in japanese]

Corona images from 1971 and a Landsat image from 2002 are used to assess glacier variations in the last 30 years in the western Terskey-Alatoo range (a part of the Tien Shan), in the northeast of the Kyrgyz Republic. The glaciers have shrunk during this period. The 269 mountain glaciers measured in the study area […]

Evidence of former landslide-dammed lakes exists in several places of the Central Asian mountains, both from historic and prehistoric times. Geomorphic records help to under- stand recent processes: large landslides repeatedly dam lakes which then threaten the population downstream. Even though most dam failures occur in the first few months after formation, lakes may also […]

The sources of the Amu Darya, one of the major Central Asian rivers draining to the Aral Sea, are located in the glacierized high-mountain areas of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. There, climate change and the resulting retreat of glaciers have led to the formation of numerous new glacial lakes. Other lakes in the area are […]

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are potentially highly dangerous events and have contributed to numerous disasters in history. Today, computer models are standard tools to estimate the magnitude of hazardous events in the future and to support risk mitigation. The present paper explores the potentials and limitations of modelling for predicting the motion of potential […]

This paper presents an analysis of the hazards emanating from the sudden drainage of alpine lakes in South-Western Tajik Pamir. In the last 40 yr, several new lakes have formed in the front of retreating glacier tongues, and existing lakes have grown. Other lakes are dammed by landslide deposits or older moraines. In 2002, sudden […]