Sarez Lake (russian: Сарезское озеро; tg, Сарез кӯл, Sarez Kūl) is a lake in

Rushon District tg, Ноҳияи Рӯшон , nickname = , motto = , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_size = , image_seal ...

Gorno-Badakhshan Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region,, abbr. / is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area, but only two percen ...

province,

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

. Length about , depth few hundred meters, water surface elevation about above sea level and volume of water is more than . The mountains around rise more than above the lake level. The lake formed in 1911, after a great

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

, when the Murghab River was blocked by a big landslide. Scientists believe that the landslide dam formed by the earthquake, known as the Usoi Dam, is unstable given local

seismicity Seismicity is a measure encompassing earthquake occurrences, mechanisms, and magnitude at a given geographical location. As such, it summarizes a region's seismic activity. The term was coined by Beno Gutenberg and Charles Francis Richter in ...

, and that the terrain below the lake is in danger of catastrophic flood if the dam were to fail during a future earthquake. The Usoi Dam wall survived a localised 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the 2015 Tajikistan earthquake, on the 7th December 2015 with no visible signs of deterioration. Shadau Lake is a small water body southwest of the Usoi Dam and west of Sarez Lake.

Formation

The formation of Sarez Lake is described in the book by Middleton and Thomas:Robert Middleton and Huw Thomas, ''Tajikistan and the High Pamirs'', Odyssey, 2008, ,

References

External links

Map of the Usoi Dam - Sarez Lake, Scale 1:110'000NASA Earth Observatory photoSarez Risk Mitigation Project
{{Authority control Lakes of Tajikistan Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region Landslide-dammed lakes Landslides in Tajikistan Landslides in 1911