Sarez Lake

Sarez Lake
Usoi Dam separating Sarez (right) and Shadau (left) lakes
Sarez Lake
Coordinates	38°12′06″N 72°45′27″E / 38.20167°N 72.75750°E / 38.20167; 72.75750
Primary inflows	Murghab River
Primary outflows	Murghab River
Basin countries	Tajikistan
Max. length	75.8 kilometres (47.1 mi)
Max. width	3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi)
Surface area	79.7 square kilometres (30.8 sq mi)
Average depth	201.8 metres (662 ft)
Max. depth	505 metres (1,657 ft)
Water volume	16.074 cubic kilometres (3.856 cu mi)
Shore length1	162 kilometres (101 mi)
Surface elevation	3,263 metres (10,705 ft)
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Sarez Lake (/səˈrɛz/ sə-REZ)^[a] is a lake in Rushon District of Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan. Its length is about 75.8 kilometres (47.1 mi), its depth about a few hundred meters, its water surface elevation about 3,263 metres (10,705 ft) above sea level, and volume of water over 16 cubic kilometres (3.8 cu mi). The mountains around it rise over 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) above the lake level.

The lake formed in 1911, after a great earthquake, when the Murghab River was blocked by a big landslide. Scientists believe that the landslide dam formed by the earthquake, known as the Usoi Dam, is unstable given local seismicity, and that the terrain below the lake is in danger of catastrophic flood if the dam were to fail during a future earthquake.^[1] The Usoi Dam wall survived a localised 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the 2015 Tajikistan earthquake, on the 7th December 2015 with no visible signs of deterioration.

Shadau Lake is a small water body southwest of the Usoi Dam and west of Sarez Lake.^[2]

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