[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...

Ice cores, 16.5 and 20-meters in length, were recovered under the auspices of a cooperative USSR US glaciological research program on the Grigoriev and It-Tish ice caps in the Tien Shan, Central Asia. These have been analyzed for microparticle concentrations and size distributions, stable isotopic ratios (o18Q and 80), selected chemical species, and Beta radioactivity. The 1)18Q records reveal ...

Despite the fact that the fast-growing population of Central Asia strongly depends on glacial melt water for fresh water supply, irrigation and hydropower production, the impact of glacier shrinkage on water availability remains poorly understood. With an annual area loss of 0.36 to 0.76%, glaciers are retreating particularly fast in the northern Tien Shan, thus causing concern about future wat...

The paper presents retrospective analysis of satellite data the upper troposphere / lower stratosphere over epicentral area destructive earthquake M=6.7, occurred in Tien-Shan territory. We established a well-defined temporal and spatial coherence between temperature perturbations seismic activity. used wavelet to identify spectral variations boundary zone before event.

While the responses of Tien Shan glaciers--and glaciers elsewhere--to climatic changes are becoming increasingly well understood, this is less the case for permafrost in general and for rock glaciers in particular. We use a novel approach to describe the climate sensitivity of rock glaciers and to reconstruct periods of high and low rock glacier activity in the Tien Shan since 1895. Using more ...

[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...