The Bartang (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and Tajik: Бартанг,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: برتنگ) is a river of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, and is a tributary to the Panj which itself is a tributary to the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

. In its middle and upper reaches, it is respectively known as the Murghab and Aksu; it flows through the

Wakhan Wakhan, or "the Wakhan" (also spelt Vakhan; Persian and , ''Vâxân'' and ''Wāxān'' respectively; , ''Vaxon''), is a rugged, mountainous part of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, then through the

Rushon District Rushon District; , is a district in east Tajikistan, in the west-central part of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). It stretches along the river Bartang between the Yazgulem Range to the north and the Rushon Range to the south.''R ...

of the

Gorno-Badakhshan Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region, 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 percent of its popul ...

autonomous region,

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

. The river is long (133 km excluding Aksu and Murghab) and has a basin area of .Бартанг

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

Course

The river rises in Chaqmaqtin Lake in the

Little Pamir The Little Pamir ( Wakhi: ''Wuch Pamir''; Kyrgyz: ''Kichik Pamir''; ) is a broad U-shaped grassy valley or '' pamir'' in the eastern part of the Wakhan in north-eastern Afghanistan. The valley is 100 km long and 10 km wide, and is bou ...

in the

, where it is known as the Aksu or Oksu ("white water"). It then flows east and crosses into Tajikistan, then turns north to the city of Murghab passing the village of Shaimak. Below the city of Murghab the river is called the Murghab (, ''Murghob'' meaning "Bird River", - ''Murgab''). . A few kilometres below Murghab is

Sarez Lake Sarez Lake ( ) is a lake in Rushon District of Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan. Its length is about , its depth about a few hundred meters, its water surface elevation about above sea level, and volume of water over . The mountains around ...

, formed by a landslide during the

1911 Sarez earthquake The 1911 Sarez earthquake occurred at 18:41 Coordinated universal time, UTC on 18 February (23:31 local time) in the central Pamir Mountains in the Rushon District of eastern Tajikistan (then part of the Russian Empire). It had an estimated magn ...

, which created the world's highest natural dam,

Usoi Dam The Usoi Dam is a natural landslide dam along the Murghab River (Tajikistan), Murghab River in Tajikistan. At high, it is the tallest dam in the world, either natural or man-made. The dam was created on 18 February 1911, when the 7.4-Surface wav ...

. The river is joined by the Ghudara river just below Sarez Lake. From the junction the river is known as the Bartang. The Bartang traces a route down the western

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...

, flowing before becoming a tributary to the Panj at the border of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Much of the river lies within the boundaries of Tajik National Park. The Bartang is fed mostly by

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

and snow melt. It is the only river to cross Gorno-Badakhshan from east to west. The Bartang enters the Panj just upstream from the town of

Rushon Rushon (, , , Pamiri: Ręxon) is a town and the seat of Rushon District of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in southeastern Tajikistan. The town with aglomeration has a total population of 6,577 (2015).Murghab River The Marghab River (Dari/Pashto: مرغاب, ''Murghāb'', Balochi: مرگاپ), anciently the Margiana (Ancient Greek: Μαργιανή, ''Margianḗ''), is an long river in Central Asia. It rises in the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Sa ...

s join to form the Bartang. The road follows the Ghudata northeast to its junction with the Tanimas which leads west to the Fedchenko Glacier. A road of sorts continues east to lake Karakul. The Murghab is generally not passable except as an adventure. There is a dirt road for the last 37 km to Murghab town. Above Murghab a jeep road, of decreasing quality, follows the river southeast to Tokhtamish and Shaimak.

Sarez Lake

On 18 February 1911, the

, estimated at 7.4 on the

Richter magnitude scale The Richter scale (), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and pr ...

, caused a large

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

which completely blocked the flow of the Murghab and buried a local village. The landslide, estimated at two cubic kilometers of rock, formed a natural

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

called the

. Over the following months the Murghab filled the space behind the Usoi to form

, which now fills about 60 kilometers in length of the Murghab river valley and contains 17 cubic kilometers of water. Geologists believe that the dam may be unstable and could collapse during a future strong earthquake, either from structural failure of the earthen dam itself or

liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of t ...

of the soil & rock debris making up the dam. Bolt, B.A., W.L. Horn, G.A. Macdonald and R.F. Scott, (1975) '' Geological hazards: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, avalanches, landslides, floods'' Springer-Verlag, New York, The Usoi Dam wall survived a localised 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the 2015 Tajikistan earthquake, on 7 December 2015 with no visible signs of deterioration.

Notes

References

*Kolesnikova, V. (April 2002)
"Tajik Forests: What Happened to the 'Crimea Gardens' and their Inhabitants"
''Russian Forest Bulletin'': Issue 20, April 2002.

The Great Game Travel Company. Retrieved August 25, 2005. *

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

satellite photographs of eastern Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

External links

Map of major river drainage basins within Tajikistan

* ttp://www.pamirs.org/images/maps/gbaorm.gif Map of Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan
Description of a bicycle ride in Tajikistan, including the Bartang Valley
{{List of rivers of Tajikistan Rivers of Tajikistan Rivers of Afghanistan International rivers of Asia Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region