Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake on the border between China and Kyrgyzstan.

The China Earthquake Networks Center recorded a Magnitude 7.2 Earthquake at a depth of 22 km beneath Wushi County in western Xinjiang Province, China, close to the border with Kyrgyzstan slightly before 2.10 am local time on Tuesday 23 January 2024 (slightly before 6.10 pm on Monday 22 January, GMT). The are no reports of any damage or injuries associated with this event at the time of writing, although people have reported feeling it across much of eastern Kyrgystan.

The approximate location of the 23 January 2024 Xinjiang/Kyrgyzstan border region Earthquake. USGS.

The Tian Shan Mountains stretch for 2500 km across Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The Tian Shan are part of the Himalayan Orogenic Belt, mountains in Central Asia pushed upwards by the collision of India and Asia. The Indian Plate is currently pushing into the Eurasian Plate from the south at a rate of 3 cm per year. Since both are continental plates, which do not subduct, the Eurasian Plate is folding and buckling, causing uplift in the Himalayas and other mountains of Central Asia. This is not a smooth process, the rocks will remain effectively stationary for log periods of time while pressure builds up, then give suddenly, releasing large amounts of energy in the form of Earthquakes.

The movement of India relative to Asia, and the blocks within the eastern part if the Eurasian Plate. University of Wollongong.

See also...

Tulipa toktogulica: A new species of Tulip from the western Tien-Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

Tulips, Tulipa spp., are one of the most instantly recognisable groups of flowers, with their popularity supporting a billion Euro cultivation industry, and the Plants being considered culturally important in many countries. Despite this, the taxonomy of the group is still somewhat unclear, with estimates of the number of known species varying between 70 and 100, depending on the classification system used. This is because Tulips are highly variable in traits such as flower shape, colour, and even genome size, even within species, making the delimitation of species difficult, and often debatable.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 22 September 2022, Brett Wilson of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Georgy Lazkov of the Institute of Biology at the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kaiyrkul Shalpykov of the  Institute of Chemistry and Phytotechnology at the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, and Samuel Brockington, also of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, describe a new species of Tulip from the Toktogul area of the JalalAbad Region, in the western Tien-Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

Map of specimens collected for the phylogenetic analysis, excluding Tulipa iliensis and Tulipa altaica, which both lacked GPS information. Populations of the new species Tulipa toktogulica are labelled in order of discovery. Wilson et al. (2022).

The new species is named Tulipa toktogulica, in reference to the region where it was found. It is established as a new species on the basis of analysis of analysis of four regions of the genome, which established Tulipa toktogulica as the sister species to a group comprising Tulipa talassica and Tulipa lemmersii.

Tulipa toktogulica only produces three leaves, with the outermost reaching about 125 mm in length and 15 mm in width, and a solitary flower, about 35 mm in length, slightly fragrant and yellow in colour, apart from the red outer tepals. 

(A) Side view of a flower. (B) Flower from above. (C) Side view of a closed flower. (D) Inner and outer tepals, stamen and ovary. (E) Prolonged tunic on bulb. (F) Seed pod. (G) Habitat at population one. (H) Habitat at population two and three. (I) Habitat at population four. Brett Wilson in Wilson et al. (2022).

Only four populations of Tulipa toktogulica are known, all from the area to the northeast of the Toktogul Reservoir, with one of these, s in pastureland of the Zagyra Mountains to the south-east of Torkent, in an area heavily grazed by Sheep and Cattle. Wild collecting of Tulips occurs in the area, but there is no commercial trade in the flowers. On the basis of the small number of known populations, and the threat presented to them by overgrazing and climate change, Brett et al. recommend that Tulipa toktogulica be classified as Endangered under the terms of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.

Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake in western Kyrgyzstan.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake at a depth of 28.0 km, in western Kyrgyzstan, 66 km to the northwest of the city of Shakhimardan an enclave of Uzbekistan surrounded by Kyrgyzstan, slightly before 4.30 pm local time (slightly before 10.30 am GMT) on Saturday 26 December 2020. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but it may have been felt locally.

 

The approximate location of the 26 December 2020 Kyrgyzstan Earthquake. USGS.

The quake occurred in the Pamiro-Alai Mountains, which form the border between Kyrgyzstan, Khazakhstan and China, and form a western extension of the the greater  Tian Shan range. The Tian Shan are part of the Himalayan Orogenic Belt, mountains in Central Asia pushed upwards by the collision of India and Asia. The Indian Plate is currently pushing into the Eurasian Plate from the south at a rate of 3 cm per year. Since both are continental plates, which do not subduct, the Eurasian Plate is folding and buckling, causing uplift in the Himalayas and other mountains of Central Asia.

 

The movement of India relative to Asia, and the blocks within the eastern part if the Eurasian Plate. University of Wollongong.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.

Gagea spelaea: A new species of Star-of-Bethlehem from the Western Tian Shan of Kyrgyzstan.

The genus Gagea comprises spring-flowering, herbaceous Lilies know by the common name of Stars-of-Bethlehem. The genus is a taxonomically difficult group, which requires examination of living plants for precise identification. A number of features, including the structure of bulbs, the character of vegetative reproduction, the presence, length, and cross section of the basal leaf, the shape of the inflorescence and capsules, the colour of tepals, and so on, are important for taxonomic identification in this genus. For correct identification, the characters of not only generative but also vegetative individuals are usually required. There are different estimates of the number of species in the genus, from about 100 to more than 320. In Kyrgyzstan 36 species of this genus have been described, with several undescribed taxa known in the mountains surrounding the Fergana Valley.

In a paper published in the Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity on 3 February 2019, Igor Levichev of the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chang-gee Jang of the Department of Biology Education at Kongju University, Seung Hwan Oh of the Forest Biodiversity Division at the Korea National Arboretum, and Georgii Lazkov of the Institute for Biology of the  National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan, describe a new species of Star-of-Bethlehem from the Sary-Chelek Nature Reserve in the Chatkal Range of the Jalal-Abad Region of western Kyrgyzstan, part of the Western Tian Shan Mountain Range.

The new species is named Gagea spelaea, where 'spelaea' means a den or small cave, in reference to the environment where the plants were found, on niches on conglomerate cliffs, in the Bokchop River Gorge. This species is distinctive in having completely white flowers, unlike the yellow or yellowish white. The species also has relatively small vegetative bulbils underground at the base, with a slender above-ground plant reaching about 25 cm in height.

Gagea spelaea: (A) general habit; (B) open flower. Georgii Lazkov in Levichev et al. (2019).

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Magnitude 4.6 Earthquake in eastern Kyrgyzstan.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.6 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km, 66 km to the southeast of the city of Karakol in the Issyk-Kul Region of eastern Kyrgyzstan, slightly before 12.55 pm local time (slightly before 6.55 am GMT) on Sunday 5 May 2019. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but it may have been felt locally.

The approximate location of the 5 May 2019 Kyrgyzstan Earthquake. USGS.

The quake occurred on the northern fringes of the Dzungarian Alatau Mountains, which form the border between Kyrgyzstan, Khazakhstan and China, and form part of the greater  Tian Shan range. The Tian Shan are part of the Himalayan Orogenic Belt, mountains in Central Asia pushed upwards by the collision of India and Asia. The Indian Plate is currently pushing into the Eurasian Plate from the south at a rate of 3 cm per year. Since both are continental plates, which do not subduct, the Eurasian Plate is folding and buckling, causing uplift in the Himalayas and other mountains of Central Asia.

 

 The movement of India relative to Asia, and the blocks within the eastern part if the Eurasian Plate. University of Wollongong.

 

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.

  

See also...

 

 

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Stone tools from a high altitude site in the Alay Valley in Kyrgyzstan.

As Humans moved out of Africa they encountered and settled in a range of new habitats. High altitude environments present a particular challenge, as they are cold for much of the year, as well as having limited available food and lower oxygen levels than other environments settled by Humans. Nevertheless, these environments have been settled since at least the end of the Pleistocene, with archaeological sites on the Tibetan Plateau from about 14 000 years ago onwards, and in the High Andes of South America from about 10 000 years ago onwards. The mountain ranges of Central Asia also contain a number of early archaeological sites, though these have been subjected to less study and are subsequently less well understood. 

In a paper published in the journal Antiquity on 27 June 2018, Svetlana Shnaider of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, William Taylor, also of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Aida Abdykanova of the American University of Central Asia, and Ksenia Kolobova and Andrei Krivoshapkin, also of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, describe the results of a new excavation at the Alay Valley Site on the banks of the Kyzyl-Suu River in southern Kyrgyzstan, at an elevation of 2800m.

View of the Alay site from the east (indicated by green arrow). William Taylor in Shnaider et al. (2018).

The Alay Valley Site was discovered in 1975 by a team led by Alaxandre Nikonov of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was excavated for a single season at the time, yielding 1740 lithic artifacts, including prismatic and narrow-faced blades and bladelets, end-scrapers, notched pieces, awls and backed points on blades, which were considered to be Early Holocene in age (i.e. less than 12 000 years old), and contemporaneous with the Oshhona and Istikskaya Cave sites in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan.

Shnaider et al. returned to the site in 2017, digging three test pits at different locations,  and establishing that all material from the site is currently exposed at the surface, where charcoal, bones and lithic objects are observable. They collected a further 244 stone tools, including debitage (flakes produced by striking them from a larger core, often useful blades in themselves), and two types of core, a semi-cylindrical core with one striking platform, and semi-pyramidal core with two striking platforms for bladelets.

Test pit at the Alay site. Aida Abdykanova in Shnaider et al. (2018).

This stone tool assemblage is quite unlike that found at the Oshhona and Istikskaya Cave sites, where microblades with ventral retouch and ‘thumbnail’ end-scrapers dominated the assemblages, a technology dated to between 13 000 and 7000 years ago. Instead the new Alay material more closely resembles Final Palaeolithic artifacts such as the Late Kulbulakian material from Dodekatym-2 in northern Uzbekistan, or Early-Middle Tutkaulian lithics such as that found at Tutkaul and Obi-Kiik in western Tajikistan. These cultures have been found across a wide area of Central Asia, and are dated to the period after the Late Glacial Maximum, roughly 13 000 to 10 000 years ago, suggesting a much earlier occupation of the area than had previously been presumed.

Lithic artifacts from the Alay site. Shnaider et al. (2018).

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake in the Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan border region.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake at a depth of 26.0 km, in the Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan border region, slightly after 6.20 pm local time (slightly after 12.2 pm GMT) on Friday 31 August 2018. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but it was felt in Almaty in Kazakhstan.

The approximate location of the 31 August Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan border region Earthquake. USGS.

The quake occurred on the northern fringes of the Dzungarian Alatau Mountains, which form the border between Kyrgyzstan, Khazakhstan and China, and form part of the greater  Tian Shan range. The Tian Shan are part of the Himalayan Orogenic Belt, mountains in Central Asia pushed upwards by the collision of India and Asia. The Indian Plate is currently pushing into the Eurasian Plate from the south at a rate of 3 cm per year. Since both are continental plates, which do not subduct, the Eurasian Plate is folding and buckling, causing uplift in the Himalayas and other mountains of Central Asia.

The movement of India relative to Asia, and the blocks within the eastern part if the Eurasian Plate. University of Wollongong.

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.