Geology of Kyrgyzstan

The country has experienced long-running uplift events, forming the Tian Shan mountains and large, sediment filled basins.

The Paleozoic rocks in the Tien Shan mountains are the remnants of accreted island arcs, mainly from the Ordovician onward.

Coarse molasse sediments lie unconformably on top of subduction-related granite intrusions and volcanic rocks.

By the early Devonian, magmatic activity was taking place in the northern Tien Shan mountains, likely as a result of the subducting Turkestan crust.

Magmatic activity resumed in the Carboniferous, with spreading in the Turkestan Ocean and renewed subduction under the Kyrgyz Block.

Magmatism continued through the Permian in the Tien Shan mountains, accompanied by deformation and the deposition of molasse sediments in different basins.

Tectonic activity rapidly resumed in the late Pliocene, leading to erosion of continental sediments into intermontane basins into the Quaternary.

Folding developed into the Quaternary in the Tien Shan mountains as global changes in climate brought on the Pleistocene ice ages.

The primary types of deposits are common at the contact between Carboniferous limestone and overlying Silurian shales and Devonian sandstone nappe formations.

Oil and gas are found in commercial quantities in the Fergana Basin in Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleogene and Neogene sedimentary rocks.