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Shrinking of intermontane basins and expansion of their flanking ranges by reverse faulting and backthrusting in two counter-dipping systems is a typical mechanism of crustal shortening and mountain building in Central Asia. This mechanism is realized along the Kurai Fault Zone (southeastern Gorny Altai). Motions on two reverse fault systems maintained thrusting of the Kurai Range and the Kubadru Uplift on the Kurai Basin sediments and caused the growth of a foreberg before the mountain front. Forberg separates narrow Aktash Basin from the Kurai Basin. The paleoearthquakes were generated by reverse faults that delineate the foreberg. Analysis of the QuickBird satellite images, drone imagery, trenching, archaeoseismological research, radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, and previous results show that eleven large (МW = 6.5–7.6) paleoearthquakes left traces as surface ruptures along the Kurai Fault Zone: twice before 7.5 ka BP, three events between 7.5 and 5.9 ka BP (7.0, 6.3, and 5.9–5.8 ka BP), one from 5.8 to 4.6 ka BP, four more at 4.6, 3.2, 1.5, and 1.3–1.2 ka BP, and the ultimate earthquake no older than 1450–1650 AD. The time difference between large earthquakes was from 200 to 1700 years. Surface faulting occurred mainly along the northern border of the foreberg where fault scarps are progressively younger northward and the Cenozoic sediments of the Aktash Basin thus become involved into uplift. GPR data to a depth of 12 m confirm the complex structure and slip geometry of the observed surface ruptures. The fault scarps are located < 1 km from the planned route of the gas pipeline from Russia to China, and the potential seismic hazard has to be taken into account in its design and construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three paleosols buried in the left lateral moraines of the Greater Azau Glacier (Northern Caucasus) were identified in an excavated outcrop (43.2658 N, 42.4766 E, 2370 m a.s.l.). When the glacier was overlying the surface of the lateral moraines at this site, the thickness of the ice was 50 m and more above the valley floor. Fragments of charcoal from the uppermost soil (S1) buried 0.6 m below the surface yielded the radiocarbon date 130 ± 20 yr BP (IGANAMS-6826) (AD 1680–1939). The middle soil (S2), buried at the depth of 13 m yielded two 14C dates 320 ± 20 yr BP (IGANAMS-8127) (bark of birch) (AD 1496–1641) and 1190 ± 20 yr BP (IGANAMS-8126) (AD 774–889) (charcoal). We suggest that the soil S2 has been formed between these dates during the Medieval Warm Period and in the early Little Ice Age. The lowermost (S3) unit lying 15 m below the surface is the thickest (0.4–0.6 m), well-developed paleosol. Charcoal collected at the top of S3, yielded the date 1300 ± 20 yr BP (IGANAMS-6826) (AD 663–773), indicating a prominent glacier advance occurred shortly before this date. Two dates from the charcoal buried at the bottom of S3 (2855 ± 20 yr BP (IGANAMS-8125) and 2880 ± 20 yr BP (IGANAMS-6827) mark the beginning of a long episode of restricted glacier extent that lasted for about 1600 years. The dates at the bottom of the S3 paleosol constrain the end of glacier advance that occurred before 2800–2900 14C yr BP. The timing of most prominent advances of the Greater Azau Glacier in the past 3500 years is in general agreement with the Late-Holocene glacial chronologies in the European Alps, Scandinavia and other regions of the Northern Hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new multi-proxy records of the Holocene environmental and climatic changes in the Western Caucasus revealed from a continuous sediment sequence from mountainous Lake Khuko (Caucasus State Natural Biospheric Reserve, 1744 m a.s.l.). Palaeoecological analyses of a sediment core for grain size, magnetic susceptibility, loss on ignition, and pollen allowed us to determine five principal climatic phases with several subphases since 10.5 ka BP. The age model is based on seven accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dates, supplemented by 210Pb data for the uppermost part of the sediment core. Warm periods (10.5–6.7, 6.7–5.5, 3.5–2.4, 0.8–0.5 ka BP) were characterized by high biological productivity in the lake as indicated by high organic matter content and expansion of forests, typical of modern low and middle mountain zones, as indicated by the increase in abundance of Quercus, Ulmus, Corylus, and Tilia in the pollen assemblages. Cold periods (5.5–3.5, 2.4–0.8, and 0.5 ka BP–present) are marked by a consistent decrease in organic matter content in lake deposits and possibly higher intensity of the catchment erosion. The changes in pollen assemblages (for instance peaks of Abies, Picea, and Pinus) suggested a potential elevational decline in the boundaries of vegetation belts and expansion of high-altitude woodlands. Abrupt changes in the lake ecosystem were identified between 4.2 and 3.5 ka cal BP marked by a short-term variation in sediment regime shown by variation in organic matter content, magnetic susceptibility values, and sediment grain size. This was probably caused by climatic fluctuations in the Western Caucasus region as a result of complex shifts in the ocean-atmosphere system during the 4.2 ka event. Overall, the first Holocene multi-proxy continuous lake sediment record provides new insights into the climate history in the Western Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]