Abstract
Nearly 20% of Kyrgyz alpine lakes covering more than 0.1 hectares are supposed to be potentially dangerous because of instability of moraine or landslide dams, overflowing of water, and rapid development of lake basins and melting of buried ice inside the moraine. 328 lakes have been concidered as potentially dangerous. Since 1952, more than 70 disastrous cases of lake ourburst have been registered.The largest potentially glacial lake is the Petrov Lake (4.03 km2; 64 mil m3; max. depth 69 m).
Annual retreat of frontal part of the glacial tongue is 40-65 m during the last decade. The lake lies inside the area of Kumtor gold mine two km upstream a pond containing poisonous tailings after ore processing.
The tailings can be washed down during an extremely powerful outburst. Glacial lakes and landslide-dammed lakes on the northern slope of the Kyrgyz range ar emonitored on a long-term basis.
The lakes threaten the densely populated Chu valley including the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek as well as popular touris area nearby. The climatological and glaciological programmes have been implemented in addition to lake monitoring of the Adygine pilot locality.