Accelerated glacier shrinkage in the Ak-Shyirak massif, Inner Tien Shan, during 2003–2013

A twentieth century major soluble ion record of dust and anthropogenic pollutants from Inilchek Glacier, Tien Shan

Using a high-resolution (~18 samples/year) major soluble ion record (Na, K, Mg, Ca, Cl!, NO3 !, and SO4 2!) covering the period 1908–1995 A.D. from the Inilchek Glacier, Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan, we provide a detailed climate and environmental proxy record for the region. Chemical concentrations, empirical orthogonal function analyses, and noncrustal excess calculations are used to identify natura...

Tree-ring based drought reconstruction for the central Tien Shan area in northwest China

[1] A robust ring-width chronology developed from two sites of Picea schrenkiana in the central Tien Shan area of northwest China was employed to study regional drought variability. Our analyses demonstrate both temperature and precipitation have significant effects on tree growth, thus both should be considered for climate reconstruction. Regional drought history (1675–2002 A.D.) was therefore...

Seismic Hazard in Tien Shan: Basement Structure Control Over the Deformation Induced by Indo-Eurasia Collision

Glacier shrinkage across High Mountain Asia

An assessment of glacier shrinkage (reduction of area) for all of HighMountain Asia requires a complete compilation of measured rates of change and also a methodology for objective comparison of rates. I present a compilation from 155 publications reporting glacier area changes, and also a methodology that overcomes the main obstacles hindering comparison. Glacier areas are not always assigned ...

Late Quaternary slip rates across the central Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan, central Asia

[1] Slip rates across active faults and folds show that late Quaternary faulting is distributed across the central Tien Shan, not concentrated at its margins. Nearly every intermontane basin contains Neogene and Quaternary syntectonic strata deformed by Holocene north-south shortening on thrust or reverse faults. In a region that spans two thirds of the north-south width of the central Tien Sha...