TIPTIMON Research

Research in the framework of TIPTIMON aims at a better understanding of the interactions between geodynamics and climate and resulting risks by quantification of several geologic processes, their rates, inter­actions with climate factors, and hazard potential; these processes are deformation, exhumation–uplift, erosion, and sedimentation. Specifically, neotectonic deformation will be monitored by two seismic networks that cover Central Asia’s populous Ferghana and Tadjik-Afghan basins as well as the structurally most characteristic and potentially most hazardous zones of the area, the Darvaz fault zone of the eastern Tadjik basin, and its prolongation, the Main Pamir thrust, and the Talas-Ferghana fault system of the Kyrgyz Tien Shan. We will compile a regional neotectonic map from these data and those obtained by remote-sensing techniques such as geomor­pho­logic mapping and drainage-system analysis. Together with ground-control, e.g. data from neotectonic field mapping, paleostress and terrace/river-displacement analyses, we will derive stress fields and deforma­tion rates. We will reoccupy stations of the 1990s CATS-GPS network and install new stations across the Darvaz fault zone, monitoring one of the largest displacement-rate and -direction changes occurring in Central Asia; similarly, we will monitor displacement changes across the highly active intra-montane Alai valley between the Pamir and Tien Shan (Main Pamir zone). We will combine this multi-method deformation moni­toring with a structural geometry study via a magnetotelluric project to understand the 3D crustal structure of and continental subduction along the Darvaz fault zone. Using Ar-Ar, fission-track, and (U-Th)-He thermochronology, we will observe cooling patterns throughout the western Tien Shan, Tadjik basin, and Pamir and apply modeling of the inter­action of cooling and topography to derive exhumation–uplift rates for an understanding of the 3D defor­mation field and the development of climate-driving orographic barriers. We will perform regional erosion-rate monitoring via remote sensing by estimating contributing factors such as rainfall, soil erodibility, slope, and land-cover; calibration and long-term quantification will be obtained using in-situ produced cosmogenic nuclides (10Be, 26Al) and OSL dating in active river-sediment samples and incised moraines–terraces. Hinterland denudation rates and drainage-system evolution will also be accessed via detrital geo-thermo­chronology in the Tadjik basin sediments. Spatial-temporal variations in sedimentation parameters and climate will be monitored in the peripheral basins of the Pamir–Tien Shan (Tadjik, Ferghana) via sedimentary-facies and stacking-pattern studies, changes in flow types of coarse clastic marginal facies, and soil types of basinal facies. In particular, we will examine progressive aridification in the Pliocene–Quaternary in the Tadjik basin as a likely effect of the increase of the Westerlies. The tectonic and climatic driving forces for destructive landslides, one of the most pronounced erosion mechanisms and hazards in Central Asia, will be explored with the aim to improving the spatial-temporal resolution of landslide events, deciphering the role of modern and past seismicity as triggers, and evaluating the influence of climatic variability and associated hydrologic changes on landsliding.

Funded  in the framework of

BMBF Forschungsprogramm WTZ:       
„Zentralasien: Monsun-Dynamik und Geoökosysteme“