Understanding the cascading effects of glacier melting in terms of large slope deformation in high mountainous areas could come from the use of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques. In this work, we investigate a slow moving, extremely large landslide (~20 km2) in the Chitral region in Northern Pakistan, which threatens several villages. Our InSAR analyses, using Sentinel-1 data which span a period of six years, allowed us to retrieve the spatio-temporal pattern of downslope deformation for both ascending and descending orbits. The results highlight a worrying situation where the crown of the landslide is moving relatively fast (from 36 to 80 mm/yr). Several sackung-type of movements and other signs of instability were observed in many locations over the crown. As for the toe of the large landslide, a western sliding sector offers a different mechanism than its eastern counterpart where the deformation appears to accumulate through time. This brief description has two implications. One from the most practical perspective, as it calls for further studies and attention from local administrations. And, it also scientifically highlights the strength of InSAR when it comes to unveiling slow deformation regimes, which may be invisible through the eye of other techniques, although they may still lead to catastrophic failures. Such considerations can be even framed beyond the scale explored in this manuscript. In ither words, the same mechanism and threat to local communities can be present across the whole Hindukush-Himalayan-Karakoram range, where glaciers are widely receding due to climate change.

The Middle Jurassic age Samana Suk Formation, exposed in Chichali Nala section of Surghar ranges has been investigated by field work, petrographic study and XRD analysis to understand the microfacies, depositional environment and fault related dolomitization of the Samana Suk Formation. This formation is widely distributed in the upper Indus basin of Pakistan and considered the most prominent stratigraphic unit of the Jurassic period. The project area lies in the Chichali Nala Section of Surghar range (Trans Indus Salt Ranges). In this section, Samana Suk Formation constitutes the lithology of carbonate having CaCo3 as a major mineral, where dolomite is present in minor amount, which is restricted to fluids along fault zone. During the study two major microfacies have been identified including the Grainstone microfacies and Mudstone-Wackestone microfacies. Samana Suk. Formation was formed under stormy influence in the environment of deposition of Formation. Its depositional environment is the inner-middle shelf which suggests the marine shelf depositional environment.

<p><strong>Landslide susceptibility mapping of Chitral, northwestern Pakistan using GIS</strong></p><p><strong>Mukhtar S. Ahmad<sup>1,</sup> *, Mona Lisa<sup>1</sup><sub>,</sub> Saad Khan<sup>2 </sup>Munawar Shah<sup>3</sup></strong></p><p><em><sup>1</sup></em><em>Department of Earth Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan</em></p><p><em><sup>2</sup></em><em>Bacha Khan University Charsadda, Pakistan</em></p><p><em><sup>3</sup></em><em>Department of Space Science, Institute of Space Technology, 44000 Islamabad, Pakistan</em></p><p><em><sup>1</sup></em><em>mukhtargeo44@gmail.com</em></p><p><em><sup>1</sup></em><em>lisa_qau@yahoo.com</em></p><p><em><sup>2</sup></em><em>saadkhan@bkuc.edu.pk</em></p><p><em><sup>3</sup></em><em>shahmunawar1@gmail.com</em></p><p><sup>*</sup><em>Corresponding author: mukhtargeo44@gmail.com</em></p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Landslides are the most frequently occurring geohazard in rugged Himalayan mountainous terrains. They often cause significant loss to life and property, and therefore landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) has become increasingly urgent and important. In this study, LSM is carried out in the Chitral district of the Hindukush region in northwestern Pakistan. Several Geographic Information System (GIS) based models (such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), weighted overlay) has been used to build landslide inventory and susceptibility maps. The study incorporated nine main factors (including human-induced parameters, such as distance from road; topographical parameters, such as slope, aspect, and landcover; geological parameters, such as lithology, distance to fault, seismicity; hydrological parameters, such as rainfall and distance to stream) to generate LSM, further classified in five classes, very high susceptibility zone, high, moderate, low, and very low susceptible zone. It is concluded that most of the landslides in the study area are the result of steep slopes of mountains, followed by precipitation and earthquake. Landslide in the form of rockfall is mostly due to the active seismicity of the Hindukush region. The predicted susceptible zones of landslide in the study area are in good agreement with the past landslide localities, which is an indication of the susceptibility mapping of landslides in the region.</p>