page_title: Sarez Lake
hierarchical_section_title: Sarez Lake
caption_attribution_description: English: Satellite image of the Usoi natural dam, the tallest dam in the world, holding back the larger Lake Sarez and the smaller Lake Shadau from a screenshot from Nasa WorldWind software
context_page_description: Sarez Lake is a lake in Rushon District of Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan. Length about 75.8 kilometres, depth few hundred meters, water surface elevation about 3,263 metres above sea level and volume of water is more than 16 cubic kilometres. The mountains around rise more than 2,300 metres 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.
  Shadau Lake is a small water body southwest of the Usoi Dam and west of Sarez Lake.
context_section_description: Sarez Lake (Tajik: Сарез) is a lake in Rushon District of Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan. Length about 75.8 kilometres (47.1 mi), depth few hundred meters, water surface elevation about 3,263 metres (10,705 ft) above sea level and volume of water is more than 16 cubic kilometres (3.8 cu mi). The mountains around rise more than 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) 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.
  Shadau Lake is a small water body southwest of the Usoi Dam and west of Sarez Lake.
caption: Satellite photo of the western end of Sarez Lake showing the Usoi Dam and the smaller Shadau Lake
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