Mesozoic • Jurassic formation GSP memoir

Ashtigar Formation

Jurassic

Karakoram-Hindukush Basin · Central Karakoram Batholith

Cited in 6 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Jurassic · Early Jurassic (Liassic)Jurassic
Named by: Gaetani et al. (1993)
Type locality: Ashtigar village, Chapursan valley, upper Hunza36.7200°N, 74.5000°E
Thickness: about 110 m
Lithology: Thick, dark grey marly shale interbedded with fine-grained turbidites, calcarenite and volcanic debris.
Synonyms: Not recorded

An Early Jurassic deep-water shale-and-turbidite unit above the Aghil Limestone in the Chapursan valley.

Ashtigar formation is named after the Ashtigar village by Gaetani et al. (1993) and comprised of shale and fine grain sandstone (turbidites) of Liassic age.

Fossils

Trigonia-type bivalves Brachiopods Crinoids Foraminifera Nannofossils

Contacts

In the Karakoram column

SandstoneMixedMarlLimestoneFossils recordedConformable

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type. True scale makes height ∝ recorded thickness; hatched = thickness not recorded. Ages approximate, for ordering.

This unit (highlighted) within its province column; faded ends continue above and below. Line style marks the contact type.

Distribution & setting

Karakoram

Basin: Karakoram-Hindukush Basin
Region: Central Karakoram Batholith
Depositional environment: marine, deep marine
Coordinates: 36.7200°N, 74.5000°E

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Correlation

Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

An Early Jurassic (Liassic) terrigenous turbidite unit that conformably overlies the Aghil Limestone; its erosional upper contact with the Yashkuk Formation is marked by a conglomerate rich in Aghil Limestone clasts. The turbidites point to deposition in a deepening, tectonically active basin.

Sources (5)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997). Geology and Tectonics of Pakistan. Graphic Publishers, Karachi.
OpenStreetMap contributors and GEOnet Names Server (public geographic gazetteers), used to geolocate named GSP type localities to approximate decimal coordinates.
Gaetani, M., Nicora, A., Henderson, C., Cirilli, S., Gale, L., Rettori, R., Vuolo, I. & Atudorei, V. (2013). Refinements in the Upper Permian to Lower Jurassic stratigraphy of Karakorum, Pakistan. Facies, 59, 915-948.
Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011). The geology of the Karakoram range, Pakistan: the new 1:100,000 geological map of Central-Western Karakoram. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 130(2), 161-262.

Reviewer confidence: high

Every fact on this page is source-cited. This entry is part of the peer-archived Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991, CC‑BY‑4.0).

Lexicon status: Appears in a single-author Geological Survey of Pakistan memoir (Malkani & Mahmood 2017), not cross-confirmed against the Shah lexicon. The Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan is largely inactive, so documented provenance — not formal ratification — is the available signal.

Cite this unit

APA

Qudsi, L. (2026). Ashtigar Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_ashtigarformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Ashtigar Formation} --- Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.21363991},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991}
}

Archived dataset: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991 (CC‑BY‑4.0) · Direct link to this entry: https://stratigraphy.pk/formation/ashtigar-formation (accessed September 5, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Gaetani et al. (1993).

Below · older

Aghil Limestone

Triassic–Jurassic

Above · younger

Yashkuk Formation