Permafrost

The Features of Engineering and Geological Researches under Opening
up of Permafrost of the High Mountains of Central Asia
12
Aldar P.Gorbunov, Edward V.Seversky
(Permafrost Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazakhstan Alpine Geocryological Laboratory
Kazakhstan,Almaty,050000,P.O.Box138)
Abstract: In the last decade the opening up of the mountain territories in the countries of
Central Asia have sharply increased. The governments of these countries began to give more
attention to mountain problems, features of their sustainable development and environmental
protection.
However, the main principles of economical planning not taking into account the real
complexities and dangers under opening up of mountain territories. Among the natural exogenic
processes inherent in all mountain territories there are a specific group of cryogenic processes
and formations such as rock glaciers, rock streams (or kurum), solifluction, thermokarst
subsidences, frost-susceptible, and cracked-polygonal grounds. It is necessary to take into
account that they are in high seismicity regions that essentially complicates an economic
activity in the mountain regions. Moreover, it should be noted that under action of local factors
in mountains an extreme variability of geocryological conditions is observed on rather short
distances. All of these make great, high demands of engineering-technical problems under
design, construction and using automobile roads and railways, electricity transmission lines and
other objects.
Till now in Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan the engineering and
geocryological researches are not priority, regular and obligatory ones under opening up of
mountain territories. It is best to China. Such researches have already received a wide range in
connection with designing and construction automobile roads, railways and pipelines in Tibet.
One of the reasons of poor quality of engineering-geocryological researches is connected
to absence of experts in general and engineering cryolithology. There is no special higher
educational program for studying of cryolitologists at the universities of the upper-mentioned
countries. All of this determines the numerous facts of destruction various engineering
buildings constructed without considering permafrost. So, both periodic and casualty expensive
repairs are ineffective and frequently do not reach positive results.
It is suffice to mention the absence of engineering and geocryological researches under the
construction of highway connecting Almaty city with southern coast of the Issyk-Kul Lake in
1998-2000 years. This highway of length about 100 km crosses two mountain ridges,
Zailiyiskiy and Kungey Alatau, rising up to a height of 3800 m a.s.l.. Already during the
highway construction and in the first year after completion of the road it became unsuitable for
operation. Significant parts of the road have been destroyed by mud-flows, blocked by
rockslides and taluses. The frontal escarp of rock glacier cuts one part of the road, active
moving ground masses from a body of rock glacier to the road occurs as a result.
The exploitation of the Kumtor golden deposits in Kirghizia at the heights more than 3800
m a.s.l. is periodically accompanied by rather negative consequences as a reason of the regional
cryogenic features. As a whole, there are numerous violations of requirements for construction
of various buildings and other engineering constructions on permafrost in the high-mountain