Seismogenic destruction of the Kamenka medieval fortress, northern Issyk-Kul region, Tien Shan (Kyrgyzstan)

A paleoseismological study of the medieval Kamenka fortress in the northern part of the Issyk-Kul Lake depression, northern Tien Shan in Kyrgyzstan, revealed an oblique slip thrust fault scarp offsetting the fortification walls. This 700 m long scarp is not related to the 1911 Kebin Earthquake (Ms 8.2) fault scarps which are widespread in the region. As analysis of stratigraphy in a paleoseismic trench and archaeological evidence reveal, it can be assigned to a major twelfth century a.d. earthquake which produced up to 4 m of oblique slip thrusting antithetic to that of the nearby dominant faults. The inferred surface rupturing earthquake apparently caused the fortress destruction and was likely the primary reason for its abandonment, not the Mongolian–Tatar invasions as previously thought.     

A macroseismic study of the Taldy-Sai caravanserai in the Kara-Bura River valley (Talas basin,Kyrgyzstan)

We report a macroseismic study of a ruined medieval building, a small caravanserai located along the caravan way from the Talas valley to the Chatkal and Fergana valleys in Kyrgyzstan. The ruins document several events in which the caravanserai was destroyed, apparently during earthquakes, and was rebuilt or repaired. The earliest earthquake occurred soon after the building was put up, about 400 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating of charcoal, and another event shook the area between 400 and 50 years BP. After being damaged in the ultimate earthquake, in the middle of the 20th century, the building was eventually abandoned.