2017 International Summer School on Rockslides and Related Phenomena in the Kokomeren River Valley (Kyrgyzstan)

In summer 2017 Dr Alexander Strom and Professor Kanatbek Abdrakhmatov will once again organise the International Summer School on Rockslides and Related Phenomena in the Kokomeren River Valley of Kyrgyzstan.  This course has been running since 2006. This area of Kyrgyzstan is notable for the unusual concentration of large landslides ranging in size from  a few million to over a billion cubic metres.  Thanks to the arid climate and comparatively low level of human activity, the features are exceptionally well preserved in the landscape.  The map, below, from the flyer advertising the course, gives an indication of the density of these landslides in this area:

Mapped landslide features in the area of the 2017 Summer School, from the flyer for the course

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The guidebook for the 2016 summer school is available online, and is a fantastic document in its own right.  This image shows the type of features that are visited on the trip:

Images from the field guide from the 2016 summer school

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The 2017 training course will be held between 5th and 20th August.  The participation fee is just 500 Euros, which includes all costs at the site: camping, food, local transportation and the detailed full-colour guidebook, which seems like an absolute bargain to me.

Further details are available on the ICL website.  I would love to participate in this course – I so wish I had the time!  I have heard nothing but praise from those who have participated in the past.  The combination of the landscape, the active tectonic setting, the landslides themselves, the expert guides and the opportunity to build a network with a range of landslide specialists is important.

The ICL is also highlighting a summer school to run from 21st May to 10th June 2017 on Natural Disasters, to be run in Ljubljana, Slovenia.