Trip on jeeps on lake Kaiyndy.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”

Charles Darwin.

To lake Kaindy tours.

Kaiyndy Lake can certainly be considered as a potential Geopark, comparable to their merits with the best world geoparks. Magnificent in its appeal and at the same time mystical landscape is combined with an exceptionally clear manifestation of the tectonic events of the recent geological past.
Kaiyndy is a mountain lake appeared as the result of tectonic landslide. In the landscape of the lake blue mirror of water, reflected in it snow-covered peaks and forested ridges as well as the flooded forest, dry stems of which rise above the water surface are harmoniously combined.
The lake is located in the eastern part of the Kungei Alatau, near the settlement Saty. The name of the lake means “birchen”, which at first glance seems odd, since it is surrounded by coniferous forest.
This name the lake has inherited from the river on which it was formed.
20 km downstream the largest birch grove across the Tien Shan stretches. Since ancient time this place and a stream, and the entire valley had the name Kaiyndy. Now the lake is included in structure of Kolsay national park.
Geological bed of the lake, as well as surrounding it watershed ranges are formed by Lower Carboniferous (more precisely, Serpukhovian) carbonate rocks, which were deposited 340 million years ago at the bottom of the warm shallow sea.
Massive reef limestone is present along with plate laminated one. If you look closely, you will notice that it is composed entirely of fossilized remains of marine animals. In some places the bedding of the plate limestone is parallel to the slope gorge.
Such an unstable construction can not withstand earthquakes, which are frequent here. Stone avalanche which fell down from the right board of the gorge run its course on its bottom and formed the natural dam.
The result was a lake formation. This happened recently presumably no more than 100 years ago. Not yet had time to rot the flooded trees, and trees growing on the avalanche body are relatively young. Initially, the water level in the lake was noticeably higher.
After the partial erosion of the upper part of the dam and water break the length of the lake decreased to 400 m, depth - to 30 m. The layer of reef limestone which lying horizontally in the left side of the gorge is rising over the lake as the small plateau, which has been recently planted with pine trees.
Under the young fir trees, deep in the ancient reef, modern karst processes develop. This is evidenced by the two lakes at the northern foot of the plateau, which likely have the karst nature. It is quite probably that in the depths of the plateau a fairly large cave can be found.
Kaiyndy is not just one of many young seismotectonic structures, which are abundant in the mountains of South-Eastern Kazakhstan. It is also a beautiful landscape: mountains, hills and trails, canyons, tall green spruces, masts of flooded forests.
For tourist, who rose to the crests of rocky slopes, the beautiful panorama of gorges Kaiyndy, Saty, and Chilik will be opened. Kaiyndy Lake is already included in tourist routes, however, without mention of the geological history. It is quite popular among tourists and local people.
For the development of geo-tourism it is necessary to compile мand publish brochures and leaflets on tourism, telling about the geological processes taking place here.
Geographic coordinates of Lake Kaindy: N42 ° 59'04.53 "E78 ° 27'56.24"

Authority:
Ilya Fishman, Yuliya Kazakova “Millions of years before the Silk Road. Geoparks in Kazakhstan”.  Printing house “Idan“ Kommunal’naya, 39, Almaty, Kazakhstan http://yadi.sk/d/4_6z_blyoxnqe

Photos  by
 Alexander Petrov.