Situated at 3 200 m above sea level, Lake Sarez is the deepest, the longest (70 km), the most difficult of access and also the youngest of the Pamir lakes. He formed only at the beginning of the century following an earthquake. In February 1911, a cliff collapsed in the valley of the Murgab river, ensevelissant the village of Oussoï and all its inhabitants. During the first four years, the course of the river was completely interrupted and a lake began to form. Several hamlets and the village of Sarez had to be evacuated. The water then sank 5 km further in the Bartang valley, but the lake level continued to rise by 9 m per year until 1925, then 1,2 m a year until 1938, when the level was roughly stabilized. Today it is only 20 centimeters a year. Geologists fear that a new cliff will collapse in the lake or that an earthquake will destabilize the dam. In August 1987, a pan rose to a wave of 16 m high on the opposite shore. If the dam formed by the 1911 collapse was to yield, the waters of the lake inonderaient about 20 000 hectares of land in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, the valleys inhabited by over 5 million people.

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