Studying past earthquakes is a factor in infrastructure design

From November 10-20, 2025, T. Altynbek uulu, Zh. Bektursunov, and E. Kaziyev, staff members of the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences, participated in an international workshop on earthquake geology and active fault hazards.

Specialists from Central Asia, the Caucasus, the United Kingdom, Italy led by Professor Richard Walker of the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford University, studied paleoseismology methods, best practise in active fault identification and mapping, and sediment sampling. They also conducted a field study ruptures of the 1889 Chilik earthquake as the case study.

During the workshop, specialists of CAIAG make presentations on "Developing an Early Warning System for Strong Earthquakes in Kyrgyzstan" and "Geophysical Surveys of the Aram-Kungey Fault".

Researchers and practitioners exchanged views on the opportunities to apply paleoseismological methods in the design process of urban, transport, water, and energy infrastructure.

The workshop was organized by the Department of Earth Sciences University of Oxford, within the framework of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office programme on earthquake hazards in the Central Asian region and the UK Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics.