From July 22 to 29, 2016, Prof. Merkel, Dr. Thomas Pohl, M.Sc. Julius Pätzold and Dipl.-Geol. Fred Franzke from the SDC flew from Berlin to Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) to conduct preliminary discussions and explorations at Issyk-Kul.

Issyk-Kul is the largest lake in Kyrgyzstan. Located in the Tian Shan Mountains, it is the second largest mountain lake in the world after Lake Titicaca in South America, covering an area of 6,236 km2. It is 182 km long, 60 km wide, up to 668 m deep and lies 1,607 m above sea level and has probably not had an above-ground outlet for several hundred years. In cooperation with Dr. Zheenbek Kulenbekov (former doctoral student from Freiberg) from the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek and the Ministry of Emergency and its diving base at Issyk-Kul, several exploratory dives were carried out in Issyk-Kul.

The aim is to set up a training and research center for scientific diving under mountain lake conditions. Potential tasks are, for example, the cause of the high uranium content of the lake water, the effects of wastewater discharges on water quality and biodiversity, neotectonics and the documentation of archaeological settlements under water.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)