Scientists fear a mountain lake could flood large areas of central Asia if it is hit by an earthquake, Moscow Echo radio reported on Sunday.

It said that Sarez lake was orignally formed when an earthquake set off a landslide which blocked the path of the Murghob river in the Pamir mountains.

The natural dam is 600 metres high and more than 4 km wide.

The lake is 500 m deep.

Scientists at a conference on the lake's dangers held recently in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, said that if the dam collapsed, some 17bn tonnes of water would flood big areas of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

The lake is in a seismically sensitive area, the radio added.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
�

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage | �