From a geological standpoint, northern Pakistan is one of the most active and unstable areas in the world. As a consequence, many massive landslides have occurred in the area in historical times that have destroyed infrastructure, blocked the Hunza River, and damaged the Karakoram Highway repeatedly. However, despite the high frequency of large magnitude landslide events, and the consequent damages, the entire area is largely understudied, mainly due to the difficult logistics and the large distances involved. This work is aimed at applying the potential use of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) for landslide identification and investigation for the Hunza-Nagar Region. Sentinel-1 images covering a period of more than two years (February 2017–August 2019) were used and processed by adopting the small baseline subset (SBAS) method. The obtained deformation rate measured along the line of sight (V_LOS) varies from −114 to 20 mm/year. The downslope velocity deformation rates (V_slope) range from 0 to −300 mm/year. The V_slope stability threshold for our study area was calculated to be −14 mm/year from the V_slope standard deviation. Four active landslides with V_slope exceeding 14 mm/year were recognizable and have been confirmed by field inspection. The identified landslides listed from the most active to least active are the Humarri, Mayoon, Khai, and Ghulmet landslides, respectively. V_LOS exceeding 114 mm/year was observed in the Humarri landslide, which posed a threat of damming a lake on the Hispar River and was also a risk to the Humarri Village located below the landslide. The maximum mean deformation detected in the Ghulmet, and Mayoon landslide was in the order of 30 mm/year and 20 mm/year, respectively. More importantly, it was found that in places, the slope deformation time series showed a patchy correlation with precipitation and seismic events in the area. This may indicate a complex, and possibly uncoupled, relationship between the two controlling agents promoting the deformation. However, the collective impact of the two factors is evident in the form of a continuously descending deformation curve and clearly indicates the ground distortion. The results indicate a potentially critical situation related to the high deformation rates measured at the Humarri landslide. On this specific slope, conditions leading to a possible catastrophic failure cannot be ruled out and should be a priority for the application of mitigation measures.

The Hunza Valley, in the northwestern Karakoram Mountains, North Pakistan, is a typical region with many towns and villages, and a dense population and is prone to landslides. The present study completed landslide identification, updating a comprehensive landslide inventory and analysis. First, the ground surface deformation was detected in the Hunza Valley by SBAS-InSAR from ascending and descending datasets, respectively. Then, the locations and boundaries were interpreted and delineated, and a comprehensive inventory of 118 landslides, including the 53 most recent InSAR identified active landslides and 65 landslides cited from the literature, was completed. This study firstly named all 118 landslides, considering the demand for globally intensive research and hazard mitigation. Finally, the deformation, spatial–topographic development, and distribution characteristics in the Hunza Valley scale and three large significant landslides were analyzed. Information on 72 reported landslides was used to construct an empirical power law relationship linking landslide area (A_L) to volume (V_L) (V_L = 0.067 × A_L^1.351), and this formula predicted the volume of 118 landslides in this study. We discovered that the landslides from the literature, which were interpreted from optical images, had lower levels of velocity, area, elevation, and height. The SBAS-InSAR-detected active landslide was characterized by higher velocity, larger area, higher elevation, larger slope gradient, larger NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), and greater height. The melting glacier water and rainfall infiltration from cracks on the landslide’s upper part may promote the action of a push from gravity on the upper part. Simultaneously, the coupling of actions from river erosion and active tectonics could have an impact on the stability of the slope toe. The up-to-date comprehensive identification and understanding of the characteristics and mechanism of landslide development in this study provide a reference for the next step in landslide disaster prevention and risk assessment.

Mountain systems of Northern Pakistan are highly vulnerable due to their spatial locality, low natural capacity, insufficient or no alternatives to cope and to reduce the adverse impacts posed by natural stresses. This case study aims to provide a holistic approach to estimate district-level disaster risk and vulnerability rankings in the northern mountains of Pakistan (∼72,000 km²) by integrating inferences from the hazard and vulnerability assessments. Based on eight hazard and nine coping capacity indicators, districts are scaled by using Analytic Hierarchy Process and overlay weight analysis. The result shows that moderately exposed mountain communities with lower coping capacity is likely to cause calamities due to mountain-specific constraints. Specifically, the level of risk as the likelihood of destruction and severity is high in Shigar, Diamer and Ghanche. Moreover, Gilgit, Shigar and Ghizer lie in the Karakoram portion of Northern Pakistan are highly exposed to natural hazards. The ability of mountain communities residing in central Karakoram (Baltistan region) is lowest to withstand and cope with adverse effects of hazardous phenomena. This approach is expected to find possibilities for learning the relationship between hazards, likelihood of disasters and coping capacities of mountain communities.

The evolution of Jurassic carbonates is globally significant for understanding the depositional framework, diagenetic phases and sedimentary characteristics of shallow marine shelf deposits. For this purpose, two outcrop sections of the Jurassic carbonates with a road distance of 121 km in the Trans Indus Ranges, NW Himalayas, were included in this study. Geological fieldwork was conducted for sedimentological data, and representative samples were collected for microfacies analysis and diagenetic evolution complemented by carbon and oxygen isotope analysis. Results show that eight microfacies were identified in both sections where mudstone microfacies was only present in the Chichali section, whereas wackestone and packstone facies widely existed in both sections. The diagenetic evolution interpreted that dolomitization and stylolization were pronounced in the Paniala section, while micritization and calcite cementation were prevalent in the Chichali section. The interpreted depositional setting implies the wide range from supratidal to outer ramp shallow marine for the Chichali section, suggesting a wide range and relatively deeper environment, alongside merely intertidal to middle ramp settings for Paniala section. Diagenetic evolution suggests marine to meteoric influence in the Chichali section, while burial and uplift phases were dominant in the Paniala section. The diagenetic events were also validated by the isotopic analysis, where most of the samples with values up to −4‰ VPDB δ¹⁸O, corresponding to a carbon isotope range of up to +4‰, were interpreted as the burial phase of diagenesis; meanwhile, a few samples with −2 δ¹³C and −7‰ VPDB δ¹⁸O isotope signatures were marked as meteoric influx in the Paniala section. This study indicates the diversity of the depositional environment and diagenetic heterogeneity by integration of thin sections using isotope data, which are quite applicable to shallow marine carbonates.