Tectonics
Tectonics is the study of the large-scale crustal history of movements and deformations of the exterior plates of the Earth. Europe and Asia appear as one continent now, but once had oceans such as the Tethys that separated pieces of the current continents by thousands of miles. The Tethys closed, as did many other former ocean basins, leaving an aggregate continent that makes up Europe, Russia, Central Asia and China. Unraveling the dozens of small and half dozen large plates also leads to an understanding of basin development and the faults that bound the basins and the rich fossil resources (China’s are world’s best) that help define the timing and climates of continental growth.
Many large basins formed during these tectonic motions, producing huge oil reserves like those of the Caspian region and southern Russia region, which all these countries can benefit from their development and export. Oil has connected Russia and Central Asia historically, so that pipelines and rail lines link very disparate regions—these are also the favored pathways for fiber as fiber needs to go continuously from one point to another, like a railroad or pipeline needs to do – and also connect people and resources at two ends. Following the historic railroads is also where cities have been built; so connecting Central Asia, Russia, and China with fiber is putting communication as another layer on existing infrastructure, trade and relationships. Fiber can connect what is already there.
This entire region is the home of devastating earthquakes, as faults move along the tectonic boundaries of major plates. The moving force is the dynamics of the Earth’s interior, which is an enormous strength of Russian science. The collisional, extensional, and strike-slip zones of the Central Asia, Russia and China are some of the most attractive in the whole world for US scientists to study. The foothills at the base of the Tien Shan and Pamir Mountains, along which most of the capitals of the Central Asia countries are located, is a major earthquake zone, which has destroyed or severely damaged all the capitals at least once during in the last 100 years. China is the world’s leading region for long-term earthquake study; with more than 4,000 years of written records and studies of some the most devastating quakes in world history.
