| Sarez Lake | |
| Coords: | 38.2017°N 72.7575°W |
| Pushpin Map: | Tajikistan |
| Inflow: | Murghab River |
| Outflow: | Murghab River |
| Basin Countries: | Tajikistan |
Sarez Lake (Russian: Сарезское озеро; Tajik: Сарез кӯл|Sarez Kūl) is a lake in Rushon District of Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan. Length about, depth few hundred meters, water surface elevation about above sea level and volume of water is more than . The mountains around rise more than 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]
The formation of Sarez Lake is described in the book by Middleton and Thomas:[3]
