Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
roecker@gretchen.geo.rpi.edu
The following is a transcription of notes that I took during a reconnaissance field trip to the Tien Shan in 1995. The figures are photos taken on the trip. If you would like to view them separately without the text, go to the figure captions file.
A few comments on this text:
| To help you locate yourself, here are some maps from the Times Atlas. The upper one has the locations of the sites shown as red diamonds, and will send you to the appropriate portion of the text when you click on it. It is rather large (810Kb) so you might have to wait a bit while it loads up the first time. The lower map is smaller (237K) but does not have the diamonds (it's an "inactive" map). Don't despair - most of the other full scale pictures that accompany this text are on the order of 50K |
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28 June
BOOM is located in the Shergeya valley west of Balikchi (Ribache) about 4 km north of the main road from Bishkek. The operator's house, a small white house with blue trim, is located in front of the vault up along one side of the valley. The entrance to the vault is about 20' in back of the house. The tunnel is about 10' wide and about 45 meters in length. There is one door, wooden, at the entrance, but more doors could be installed if desired. There are two piers at the end of the tunnel. The smaller one (2 x 2 meters) is located at the very end and now has 3 SKM seismometers on it. The larger (4 x 2 meter) pier has 3 components of a strong motion accelerometer on it. Both piers have a good amount of free space available for additional sensor(s).
We arrived at station BOOM about 2PM and did some recon. Station operator was not there so Dulat took an axe to the lock on the door.
The name of the chief operator is Orukbie Asanov. He lives here with his wife and 3 children. Two sons are 19 and 20. The 20 year-old is now at the University studying geography, and the 19 year-old helps maintain the station.
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| Figure A1. Station BOOM. South side of operator's house. The entrance to the tunnel is just behind the house. The cord on Dulat's left goes to the gas powered generator. Batteries and chargers are in the room behind him. | Figure A2. Station BOOM. North side of operator's house. |
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| Figure A3. Station BOOM. Entrance to the tunnel. View from back side of operator's house. Upper cable is power (only when generator is working) and cable on ground is from the seismometers. Trough in front is for watering animals | Figure A4. Station BOOM. Entrance to the tunnel. Dulat overriding security system. |
Power: there is no electric main here. All power comes from a gas powered generator hooked up to batteries (accumulators). The station can operate for about one week on batteries alone. Getting gas up to this site is not easy for the operator to do, so he does it as infrequently as possible. He uses about 100 liters/month. Dulat does not know the power rating of the generator. There is no electricity going into the vault so no lights - bring a good flashlight if you want to see anything.
Access: not much snow in winter, and access is no problem at any time of year.
Communication: They have a radio, which, as is the case with all stations, they use twice a day to communicate with Bishkek. No phone.
Notes: Cable is above ground between house (where recorder is located) and vault. We could put the DAS in the vault but would have to install another door to help maintain temperature stability in the tunnel. The operator has used the tunnel in the past as storage for hay and obviously has had his sheep in there, but Dulat says he doesn't do it anymore.
As at nearly all stations, the best place for the DAS would be in the house, the best place for solar panels on the roof of the house. However, if we install extra doors we could put the DAS in the vault.
One good bit of information that hadn't occurred to me before is that the analogue records from each of the stations must go to Bishkek at least once a month (either the operators go to Bishkek or Dulat goes to the stations). This is good news as it provides us with a means of tape transport as well.
We arrived at Ananeva about 5 PM. This station is located just outside of town in back of the operator's house. Like BOOM, this station was installed in the 60's by CSE.
Operators: there are 5 people managing this site. Two live on-site, one lives next door, and the other two live in town. The chief is Shurkorov, Umet Alu. He is a very pleasant man who has had a fair amount of technical training. He used to teach in Bishkek (physics) but has semi-retired to take care of this station. House is in a nice pastoral setting. Lots of fruit trees and a few animals (cows mostly).
| Figure A7. Station ANANEVA. The entrance to the vault. Note power lines above door, outcrop to rear of vault. Man in picture is Umet Ala Shurkorov, the station chief. |
Vault: The vault is located a fair distance (about 200 m) behind the house, up the hill and beyond a garden - well away from activity. The entrance to the vault is located just where bedrock exposure begins (alluvium farther down), and is within a fenced in area. According to Umet, it would not be wise to put equipment outside of the fenced area for security reasons. There is electricity in the vault, so lights are available. The vault goes about 30 feet into the rock. There is one door and three door frames (without doors) near the entrance. The pier is 18' long, 3' high, and 4' wide. SKD components are located at the far end of the pier with plenty of space at the near end.
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| Figure A8. Station ANANEVA. View to the south from the entrance to the vault. | Figure A9. Station ANANEVA. The pier inside the vault, with SKM/SKD seismometers. Note plenty of free space on the pier for additional sensor. | Figure A10. Station ANANEVA. View of the vault, looking to the north. Door is to the right behind trees. Note good exposure begins behind vault on far side of fence. |
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| Figure A11. Station ANANEVA. Galitzen seismometers in basement of observatory. | Figure A12. Station ANANEVA. Galitzen seismometers in basement of observatory. (different perspective). | Figure A13. Station ANANEVA. Fault scarp north of station. This photo was taken in the evening so is a bit dark (sorry!) |
Power: Electric power is on about 90% of the time (typical). Vault has power.
Communication: Both radio and telephone ((31942)-61-4-15).
After inspection we were invited for Chi, which turned out to be a major Ploff extravaganza. Great food, lots of toasts, etc. We didn't leave until about 9PM, and made it to Prezvalsk (Karakol) at about 11 PM. We met one of the operators at Karakol, had some salad and vodka (naturally) and then hit the sack.
29 June
Background: This station has been operating since 1947, and so predates CSE. It was one of the first regional sites installed by IPZ. It used to be far from town but the town has since grown around it. Still not exactly urban but a hotel was recently built behind the observatory.
Personnel: Five people employed at site. Chief is Lobov, Mikaelova Miasogedeva. Her second in command at the site is a young Kyrgyz guy named Alim Kashaliev who has been working here for about one year. The other three are technicians who live in town. According to Dulat, all have "high education".
Description of site: The station is part of a largish fenced in compound about 150m on a side. The living quarters and observatory (where the recording equipment is) are located near the center of the compound, the vault is about 30 meters from the house.
Vault: The vault is a large excavation about 3 meters below the surface. Access is through a stairway on one side of the vault. The pier is sunk about 2 meters below the floor of the vault and stands about 1 meter above the floor. There is no bedrock in the vicinity of Karakol so we're sitting on alluvium here. SKM gain is 27K. There are two piers, both of which are about 2 m on a side and both of which have a fair amount of free space. There are no extra wires in the cable to the observatory, but access to vault is pretty easy.
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| Figure A14. Station KARAKOL. Interior of vault. Two piers, both of which are sunk two meters beneath the floor. Space on near pier for extra sensor. | Figure A15. Station KARAKOL. Interior of vault (different perspective). | Figure A16. Station KARAKOL. Exterior of vault, view to southeast towards observatory. Entrance is via door to left, which opens to stairway. Floor of vault is two meters below surface. Area behind corrugated tin occasionally used for warehouse. |
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| Figure A17. Station KARAKOL. Exterior of vault, view to northwest away from observatory. Entrance is on opposite side. Roof of new observer's house is seen to the left. | Figure A18. Station KARAKOL. The observatory. Observer's house to the right, and beyond that is the vault. | Figure A19. Station KARAKOL. Entrance to the compound, and local facilities. Taken from entrance to observatory. |
Security is ok because we are in an occupied, fenced-in compound, but nevertheless the area of the site is populated so proper precautions are advised.
Power: Usual story. Connected to main but can go off several times a day. Rare to have power off completely for more than one day.
Communication: Radio and telephone (31922-202-72).
Notes: there is an additional pier in the basement of the observatory where strong motion equipment now sits, but this would be quite noisy, if only because there is a furnace here as well. Here are a couple of views of it:
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| Figure A20. Station KARAKOL. Strong motion vault in basement of observatory. | Figure A21. Station KARAKOL. Strong motion vault in basement of observatory. Note furnace near wall. |
One possibility would be to build a small enclosure for the DAS on the surface outside of the vault, or build a shelf in the stairwell outside of the vault for it to rest upon.
Note: the honey in this part of the Tien Shan is quite famous, and I have been consuming a lot of it. The station chief (Mikaelova Miasogedeva) made a present of a jar of it to me.
After morning of visit at Karakol we headed off on road to Ken Suu. The road to Ken Suu is very scenic, even by Tien Shan standards. More trees than most places in these mountains. Road quality is better than it should be because of a major effort some 10 years ago to operate a Wolfram mine in the vicinity of Ken Suu. The mine proved unproductive, but the road is still here!
Here are some views along the road from Karakol to Ken Suu. Most of these were taken from a moving vehicle (after all, this was a business trip - no time to stop for touristy photos!). and thus are not of the best quality:
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| Figure A22. View 1. | Figure A23. View 2. | Figure A24. View 3. |
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| Figure A25. View 4. | Figure A26. View 5. | Figure A27. View 6. |
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| Figure A28. Common road blockage on road from Karakol to Ken Suu. | Figure A29. View along the road from Karakol to Ken Suu. | Figure A30. At the highest pass between Karakol and Ken Suu. |
Station Ken Suu is located just north of the Sari Djas river. It was reopened shortly before we arrived and a crew of 4 KIS guys were working on getting the power back on.
The seismometer is an SKM located on an outcrop at the surface within a small brick hut. The hut is about 40 meters behind the operator's house. There is some extra space in this hut but we will most likely want to construct our own site here. There are other outcrops in the vicinity although it is not clear how massive they are. The real good exposure is located quite a bit higher up the hill (another 50 meters or so).
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| Figure A31. Station KEN SUU. The SKM hut. | Figure A32. Station KEN SUU. Interior of the SKM hut. | Figure A33. Station KEN SUU. View of the observer's house from the SKM hut. Note stream and Sari Djas river in background. |
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| Figure A34. Station KEN SUU. View of the front of the observer's house. | Figure A35. Station KEN SUU. Additional outcrops behind the SKM hut. | Figure A36. Station KEN SUU. Group shot after Bishparmak. Main operator is second man from the right. His wife and daughter are near the middle. |
Power is via a generator, as in Boom. Gas will arrive here about once every two months from Karakol. Seismograms will go to Karakol about once a month.
Communication: none yet but they will have radio when installation is complete.
Security: Probably good as this is a very remote area. Not many people and everyone knows everyone else. As it was the first day for the new operators, there was a traditional house warming party where the new host invites everyone in the valley over for Bishparmak.
Accessibility: Depends on the road service, which has been fairly reliable in the past. Nevertheless, this is the biggest question mark at this site.
Personnel: 3 people at site: Alumbievich, Omer Bek and his wife (Kojaka Awa Sozul) and daughter (Alumbaiava Begieem) who is 21 and has a small son.
There is plenty of room in the house for additional equipment.
Drove back to Karakol with a Yak farmer and a Russian woman with a lot of baggage. Left them in town and then headed off towards Kadji Sai. About half way there we stopped off for the night at the home of a former operator (Turdu Bek Kazmakunovich) that Dulat knows. This guy is a hunter and now is in the business of taking foreigners (mostly Germans) up into the mountains to shoot Marco Polo rams.
30 June
Woke early and headed off for nearby hot spring for a bath. Nice to feel clean again. Back to our host for breakfast tea, then off to Kara Sai.
The road to Kara Sai apparently used to be quite a hard trek but recently has undergone massive improvements due to the efforts of a Canadian-Krygyz gold mining company (named "Kontor" after the Kyrgyz word for gold). They contracted some Turkish company to build the road. Road most of the way is now quite good up to the third (and highest at about 4000 meters) pass, after which the Kontor road heads off to the east and the old road heads south to Kara Sai. There is little maintenance of this road, despite heavy use by military. Lots of bridges are out, and creative driving is required. There is a high voltage line that goes parallel to this road nearly all the way to Kara Sai. Apparently this was part of the same Wolfram mine effort, in this case the line brought power to the mine form Toktugul.
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| Figure B1. Views along the road from Kadji Sai to Kara Sai (I). | Figure B2. Views along the road from Kadji Sai to Kara Sai (II). |
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| Figure B3. Views along the road from Kadji Sai to Kara Sai (III). At the final pass. | Figure B4. Views along the road from Kadji Sai to Kara Sai (IV). Looking south from the last pass. |
Kara Sai is a ghost town. In the old days it was a "cultural center" but ceased to function about 8 years ago. Odd. On the north side to the valley, on which the town is located, there is no hard rock exposure. The former SKM station was located in a small hut about 100 meters behind a house at the eastern end of the town.
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| Figure B5. KARA SAI. The old SKM hut; no longer used. Note lack of outcrop at this site. | Figure B6. KARA SAI. Looking south across the valley from the old SKM hut. Buildings are part of the defunct "cultural center". Former operator's house is behind jeep. Border guard outpost can be seen in the background. |
At the other side of the valley is the border guard station. We discussed our mission with the guy in charge: vice commandant Lt. Major Nagietsir, Oleg Anatolivich. The head guy was in Karakol so not available. Unfortunately there had been no call from Bishkek so while Oleg was nice about the whole business he couldn't do a lot for us as he couldn't take any responsibility. He is a real straight arrow - Y.F.'s attempts to leave him a bottle of vodka all failed.
Some information: Power is continuous. They are on main and have a generator that runs when main goes down.
Security is no problem.
There is frequent military travel between this site and Karakol, and from there to Bishkek.
We went to visit the hills behind the base with one of the soldiers. The nearest outcrops are about 2 km south of the base, but these are pretty massive. Depending on level of help we get from military, we may just build an enclosure here for the DAS and ask someone to come out every few weeks to dump data. Otherwise use low sample rate and have Kunikov take care of it. I don't know if telemetry is an option.
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| Figure B7. KARA SAI. Closer view of border guard outpost, looking south. Small building to the right is an unused warehouse. Proposed site is in the hills in back of this small building. | Figure B8. KARA SAI. Kopnichev, Dulat, and soldier standing in front of massive outcrop in foothills behind border guard outpost. | Figure B9. KARA SAI. View from the front gate of the border guard outpost, looking southeast. Small building is the warehouse. Outcrops visited are in the hills behind this building. |
The trip back to Issyk Kul took about 3 hours. Took a quick dip in the lake - cold but refreshing - and then headed out to Kadji Sai.
The station at Kadji Sai is located a few km south of the town at the edge of steep rocky red cliffs. The setting is quite attractive, as is the operator's house and surrounding gardens. This is an SKD site so there are 5 people here:
Communication: Radio and telephone (8241-92-3-98)
Electric Power: Reliable in summer, less so in winter. Typically goes off 2 times a week, sometimes for 2-3 days at a time.
Security: Could be a problem here, so need to take extra precautions. They have had problems with theft and vandalism. Metal door on vault was beaten in an entry attempt. Apparantly there was a factory that went out of business and put most of the locals out of work five years ago. That was when the theft problem started. Still, putting solar panels on roof would be ok.
Access: not much snow here, so access is not a problem at any time.
Vault: Vault is a room carved out of the rock about 8' x 5' floor and about 7' high. Pier with full compliment (SKM and SKD) on pier. Room for additional sensor. Entry to vault is through an exterior metal plated wooden door, followed about 2' beyond by a doorless frame. Outside door cemented into surrounding rock.
The vault is located in the side of the cliff about 300 meters in back of the house. The existing cable has 13 or 14 spare wires (25 used already).
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| Figure B10. Station KADJI SAI. View of interior of vault with SKD/SKM sensors on pier. | Figure B11. Station KADJI SAI. Entrance to vault with Tele Bek Amontouravich Karasartov in front of door. Note damage to door near his left shoulder. | Figure B12. Station KADJI SAI. Entrance to vault viewed from farther down the hill. View to the south. |
1 July
Had breakfast in the Kadji Sai house, then took the family down to another town along Issyk kul for some relative's birthday party. Several family pictures taken. Stopped off at sanitorium about 20 km south of Ribache for a bath. Nice setup - a hot spring channeled into a room with individual bathtubs so you can use soap. First soap since I left IVTAN (and last, as it turned out). Clean for now.
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| Figure B13. Station KADJI SAI. Operator's house. Vault is in the cliffs behind the house. View to the south. | Figures B14-B17. Station KADJI SAI. Various views of the Operator's family in garden. This one (B15) is typical. |
Drove down to Narin and met with guys at the station to discuss the remainder of our journey south to Chatyrtash and Torugart. The chief of the station, a young guy named Abdurakmanov, Kubanich Bek, lived in Ak Sai valley most of his life and so knew the ropes pretty well. The main news was that in addition to the regular border guards we learned of from Trapeznikov, there were additional border guard stations some 80 km before the border that also needed to be passed. Problem was we had no permission. Called to Trapeznikov to find out what we could do about this. Then went to the border guard office in Narin to check in with the big chiefs there. Problem in that the biggest chief was away for the day and no one had either heard about us or was willing to take responsibility for us. So, we went back to do the tour of Narin, with no possibility of heading south that day.
Narin is like Karakol in that it is an old base built by Moscow many years ago. It also consists of a largish compound of several buildings surrounded by a fence. Plenty of room in the observatory for additional equipment. The vault is located in an elevated exposure south of the compound by about 80 meters, separated from the compound by a river bed that was then dry. There are three consecutive doors to the entrance of the vault, separated by about 1 meter. After the third door there is a room about 7 meters long and 2 meters wide, which then empties into the main vault area, which is about 4 meters long and 10 meters wide. There are two piers in the main vault, each with plenty of spare room. The existing cable to the observatory has 14 free wires.
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| Figure B18. Station NARIN. One of the piers in the interior of the vault. | Figure B19. Station NARIN. Entrance to the vault, looking south. Chief operator standing by door. |
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| Figure B20. Station NARIN. View north from entrance to the vault. Note bridge over dry river bed. Observatory is behind trees. | Figure B21. Station NARIN. View south to entrance to the vault, taken from bridge over dry river bed. |
Power: A new main was recently installed bringing power from Toktugul so situation has improved but still power goes off 4-5 times a week. There is power in the vault (lights were turned on while we were there).
Solar panels can not be installed on roof of observatory due to trees surrounding building, but nearby buildings are clear of obstructions.
Security on the compound is no problem, but there may be some problem with equipment installed outside the fence (not advised).
| Figure B22. Station NARIN. The observatory, surrounded by trees. |
No word from border guard chief that night, who had promised to call when he arrived.
2 July
Call from border guard chief at 7:30 AM requesting our presence at 7:50. Quick tea and then off to his office. Kopnichev was only one allowed in for an audience, but things eventually got straightened out and we had a letter of permission in our possession. Seems that a lot of the delay was due to someone in the Bishkek office neglecting to call the Narin office about us. Anyway, off we went to Chatyrtash.
The road to Chatyrtash is typical mountain road - unimproved dirt and speeds maxing out at 30 km/hr. Stopped for lunch at creek near village of Bosovo, near the intersection of the roads that go north and south of the river. Traded tomatoes and cucumbers with some boys for a few cups of khummis.
The first border guard station is located just south of the Kynda pass. The procedure here is tedious but if you have the right bumagi there is no real problem. Guards are various shades of friendly, but the result is always the same.
As you approach what should be the town (according to the map) you come first to the "old" border guard station which is obviously not used anymore (serious disrepair). Chatyrtash, as is the case with most "towns" in the Ak Sai valley, is not a permanent settlement, but more a simple place name.
Note: Chatyrtash literally means "tent rock" and as you approach this place you can see where the name comes from. In the middle of the Ak Sai river there is a large rock that has a convincingly tent-like shape.
We were met at the old station by two border guards in a truck, whom we followed to the new station about 5 km to the east.
The base at Chatyrtash is a fairly substantial complex with two largish dormitories, a garage, a stable, and other smaller buildings (including a three-hole outhouse). The biggest challenge here is that there doesn't appear to be any hard rock at or near the surface in the area of the base. There is very good exposure about 150 m to the south, but unfortunately there is also a fairly substantial river (the Ak Sai river) between it and the base. The nearest easily accessible outcrop is about 2 km to the east. There is a road to this outcrop (virtually no traffic, however).
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| Figure B23. CHATYRTASH. Looking south from the southern gate to the border guard outpost. Ak Sai river in foreground, with massive exposures beyond. | Figure B25. CHATYRTASH. Continuation of Figure B24 to the north (left). | Figure B24. CHATYRTASH. Panorama looking east from the southern gate to the border guard outpost. Ak Sai river in foreground, note that it bends to the south here. Some good exposure at the bend. Note road in middle which starts out north of the outpost. Also note lack of exposure to the north. |
The river is dry in August and September, and freezes over from December to March.
The guy we spoke with (Polyakof, Sergei Alexandrovich) says that security can't be guaranteed off the base as there are a few nomads around, but he didn't seem overly concerned.
Power: they are on electric main and have generators as well.
Access: Military traffic to/from Narin is about once/month. They get a meter of snow in the winter and temperatures drop to -50 deg C. Anyone going on their own needs military clearance first (but this appears to be straightforward - just need to notify in advance).
Notes: for exposure, the best site is across the river, but telemetry would definitely be required. At the site east of the base we could build an enclosure for the DAS, but would of course be not as convenient for whoever is going to take care of it (unless it is one of our team, in which case it doesn't matter).
Saw a herd of Yaks grazing near the road on the way back. Took some photos:
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| Figure C1. Yaks near road. | Figure C2. More Yaks near road. | Figure C3. Even More Yaks near road. |
Drove back through Bosovo and took the south road - pretty bumpy and slow. Stopped for the day at Dulat's sister-in-law's place near the village of Bash Kaindi (NE of At Bashi). Sheep slaughtered on our behalf; Bishparmak for breakfast (yum!).
3 July
Next morning we headed out to Kazibek to scout out a site for a new station. Kazibek is close to the At Bashi range and there are exposures galore so the pickings were good. We went up a dirt track SW of town beyond the graveyards and mausoleums, following a creek. We went as far as we could in the jeep, which was about where the canyon becomes rather narrow. To the south of the creek the canyon opens up to a small ravine with a lot of both soil and exposure. We all agreed that this would be a pretty good site.
Of course, there is no electricity here (or anything else, at the moment). Dulat says that KIS can provide a "wagon" for 2 persons to live in, we would pay them some monthly salary for expenses. They probably could also provide radio, maybe a generator. According to Y.F., Dulat has a number of unemployed relatives in this valley who would be happy to work for us.
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| Figure C4. View looking south up main canyon south of Kazibek village. | Figure C5. View looking north in secondary canyon west of main canyon. Proposed site in back of Dulat. | Figure C6. View looking east from proposed site back down into main canyon. |
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| Figure C7. View looking north in secondary canyon west of main canyon. Proposed site in back of Dulat. | Figure C8. View looking north in main canyon. Proposed site is to the left. Village of Kazibek visible in the At Bashi valley. | Figure C9. View looking east from main canyon into secondary canyon. Proposed site is in rocks to the right. |
After Kazibek we headed down the road to Turogart, arriving about 2:30 PM after another tedious delay at the first border guard station. When we arrived, the commandant was not there so we hung out for a while, taking the time to fix a flat tire recently received by running over a bullet in the road (!).
The base at Torugart is in the same style as the others we visited (big fence surrounding compound of large dorms and a few outbuildings). The main difference is the presence of a serious looking double barbed fence for several km along the road (we are quite near the Chinese border), and some real bunkers for soldiers to hunker down in and repel the invading hoards (most of these look like they could use some upkeep, however).
The base has no main power, but has a generator that runs nearly continuously (pretty noisy, partly due to echo off exposure to the south). It is located south of Chatyr Kul and west of a smaller lake on the map (name unknown) and about 4 km from the main road.
There is a very nice massive exposure south of the base facing north and elongated in an east-west direction. We figure that the optimum location for the site would be towards the western end of this exposure, about 200 meters from the base.
There is frequent traffic between the base and Narin. Radio and telephone (military line) is here and pretty reliable here.
The name of the commandant is Alexander ("call me Sasha") Vladimerivich Nazarchuk - nice guy and quite helpful.
Security is not a problem here at all, due to extensive system of fences and towers. You'd have to be completely crazy to want to steal something here.
The following pictures (C10-C15) are progressive views, from east to west, of the exposure south of the border guard station. As I am looking south and west is to the left, these views are reordered from west to east here. C15 and C12 are interchangeable - with and without Y. Kopnichev. The border guard station is visible in C14. A small lake south of Chatyr-Kul can be seen behind the border guard station. Proposed site is on the eastern end of this outcrop (C10 or C11).
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| Figure C14. Westernmost view of outcrop. | Figure C13. Continuation East from C14. | Figure C15. Continuation East from C13. |
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| Figure C11. Continuation East from C15. | Figure C10. Continuation East from C11. | Figure C12. Figure C15 with Kopnichev. |
The following are a couple of panoramic views of Chatyr-Kul, looking north from the point from which C10-C15 were taken.
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| Figure C16. West of C17. | Figure C17. East of C16. |
The following are two panoramic views looking south from the main road back towards the border guard station (shown on the left of C18). Proposed site is in on far right of exposure behind the station. Chinese border is at top of the snow capped ridge. Note fencing that appears to be miniature telephone poles.
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| Figure C18. West of C19. | Figure C19. East of C18. |
Because of delays while waiting for the commandant, we were late getting out of Ak Sai. Dulat had hoped to make it to Baetevo, where he knows someone from his school days, but this was now out of the question. We turned up the road NW out of At Bashi valley and at about 7:30 PM I noticed one of the camp sites we had occupied last year, so we turned in here. Unfortunately, just at this moment the weather got really ugly as a front passed over, and we had to set up tents in rain and high win EMS tent, Yevgeny slept in the jeep, but Y.F. and Dulat got a bit wet in the UNAVCO tent and didn't sleep so well.
| Figures C20 and C21. Rainbow during temporary lull in storm on road between At Bashi and Baetovo. |
4 July
Still raining in the morning, and crew looks a bit disheveled. Roads up to the next pass were rather slick, and we had to traverse a landslide on the north side of the pass. Once in the valley the sun came out and everything dried up.
Next site was Osoaviakhim. This turned out to be a major disappointment as all of the rocks to the south of the Alabuga river are heavily heavily weathered sediments; not what one might call real solid. We looked around Konorchok as well (just NE of Osoaviakhim) but geology was no different and living conditions were not as promising.
There is a largish hill/mountain about 1 km south of the town of Osoaviakhim that might serve for a site. The town is expanding south towards this hill but there isn't a lot of traffic here. Security is unknown but we will make arrangements as for Kazibek.
Generally speaking we were all rather disappointed in this site - our first real failure to find something useful. I'm not sure this will be the last choice here, as I am inclined to try to find an alternate site north of the Ak Shirak range to the north (and on the other side of the large Alabuga river and with no road on the south). We'll see about this.
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| Figure C22. OSOAVIAKHIM . View from edge of outcrop of weathered sediments looking north to the village and the Ak Shirak range. | Figure C23. OSOAVIAKHIM . View from edge of outcrop of weathered sediments looking west. |
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| Figure C24. OSOAVIAKHIM . View of outcrop of weathered sediments, looking south from end of village. | Figure C25. OSOAVIAKHIM . View of edge of outcrop of weathered sediments, looking south from end of village. C22 and C23 were taken from the knob along the edge. |
Here is a panoramic view of the weathered sediments, taken from the road to the north of Osoaviakhim (view to the south). The village appears in the front of the hills.
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| Figure D1. West of D2. | Figure D2. East of D1. | Figure D3. East of D2. |
| Figure D4. Rainbow along road from Osoaviakim to Aral. |
Aral is located near the junction of the Kekemeren and Djumgal rivers. We got there about 8 PM, and were invited in by the station chief for dinner, part of which consisted of fish that he caught himself in the Kekemeren river.
5 July
Aral was installed in the 50's by the Talgar group. The current chief, Tolongutov, Moldosh Tolongutovich, has been working there for 32 years.
The chief's house and observatory are located north of an off road that runs parallel to the Kekemeren river. The observatory is about 70 meters west of the house, and has a lot of spare room. The vault is located in the face of a mountain that rises up about 300 meters to the west.
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| Figure D5. View from the entrance to the Vault at Aral looking West towards the Operator's house and the town. The series of poles support the wires that bring power to the vault. The largish building is the school, and the operator's house is to the right of it. | Figure D6. The Entrance to the vault, looking east from slightly downhill. Note power lines at top. This view is 180 degrees from D5. | Figure D7. The Entrance to the vault, looking east from back of the operator's house. The vault is the dark spot at the end of the line of power poles. |
Power: like everywhere, it goes off about once a week or so. There is power going to the vault, but for some reason there were no lights.
Personnel: This is SKD site, so 5 people are employed here. Three live on site, 2 live in town. All are considered technicians.
Vault: The main entrance is an iron gate, with a second iron gate after a small (2 meter) entryway. After the second iron gate there is a wooden door about 1.5 m further along, after which there is a tunnel 4 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. There is another door at the end of this tunnel, then another tunnel 4-5 meters long with a long pier on the north side (there are also some 1' diameter holes in the floor that can easily be stepped in - these used to house some kind of equipment, but it's not clear what). Beyond this tunnel is the main vault containing a pier about 5 meters long and 2 meters wide. SKD and SKM seismometers on this, with plenty of empty space.
The original cable to the observatory has 12 free wires. It is about 300m long and is buried 1 m below that surface.
Security of the site is only fair, because of nearby town. Also, there are 4-5 houses in the vicinity of the observatory, as well as a school between the observatory and the vault. Some problems reported of kids throwing rocks.
Access: Year round. Sometimes there can be a lot of snow (we were told about the storm of 1969) but normally about 80 cm of snow and as cold as everywhere else.
No telephone, but they make radio communication twice a day.
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| Figure D8. The operator's house is the building in the middle of the photo. In front (and right) of it is a "lab" where the seismic equipment is stored, batteries are charged, etc. View looking to the west. | Figure D9-D10. The Operator, Moldosh Tolongutovich Tolongutov, is on the left in this family portrait. Wife and eldest son are to his left. |
After another Bishparmak breakfast we loaded up and headed for home through Susamyr and the tunnel to Kara Balta. Stopped at the station at Erkin Sai for tea and a tour of both the KIS and KNET sites there. Got back to Bishkek about 5 PM, left off Dulat and headed up to IVTAN.
| Figure D11. Walking up to the KNET station at Erkin-Sai. |
Field trip officially over, spent next day in discussions with Trapeznikov and Turdukelov. Headed out on 7 July for Talgar. Summary of these discussions can be found in a separate file. 8-10 July I was in Talgar with Kopnichev, and we discussed the trip with Valerie Kunikov. I also met with a recent hire, Ina Sokolova, a mathematician and computer type who will probably serve as the main systems person here for the Sun workstation. The idea is to have Kunikov be principally responsible for trouble shooting, and it probably be a good idea to have Glen give him and Bragin's crew some extra training when he comes for installation. We also need to think about what kind of test equipment, spare parts, etc., we should leave in Talgar for Kunikov to enable him to do a competent job.
Y.F. says that Talgar can provide two large trucks for the installation if need be. It may be a good idea to use one of these to carry equipment into China, and do a loop around Urumqi and back into Kazachstan north of the mountains. Probably this would be a lot cheaper than using Chinese vehicles, although "extra" Chinese expenses may more than make up for this.
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