Paleozoic • Permian formation GSP memoir

Atark Formation

Permian to Triassic

Karakoram-Hindukush Basin · Central Karakoram Batholith

Cited in 4 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · PermianPermian to Triassic
Named by: Buchroithner (1978)
Type locality: Named from the Atark Valley, a tributary of the Tirich Gol east of the Tirich Mir; forms a continuous strip north of the Tirich Boundary Zone from the SW edge of the map to Inkip in the Yarkhun Valley.
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Dolomite, limestone, shale, sandstone and marble.
Synonyms: Not recorded

An Early–Middle Permian dolomite-and-limestone unit of the Chitral region.

Atark Formation is named by Buchroithner (1978). It consists of dolomite, limestone, shale, sandstone and marbles. It is Sakmarian to Midian in age (Gaetani and Leven 1993).

Fossils

Megalodonts (bivalves)Dasycladacean algae

Contacts

In the Karakoram column

MetamorphicLimestoneSandstoneFossils recordedContact not recorded

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type; dotted = no contact recorded in the sources (not a claim of conformity). 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
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

An Early to Middle Permian (Sakmarian–Midian) carbonate–clastic unit of the Chitral/Baroghil region (Gaetani and Leven, 1993).

Research notes (4)

Field-by-field findings drawn from the cited literature. Every statement is traced to a registered source — follow a citation for the full reference.

Age & correlation (4)

CONFIRMED against Zanchi & Gaetani (2011, full text): the Atark Unit is a severely deformed succession of Permian to TRIASSIC shallow-water carbonate and slates (Gaetani & Leven 1993), East Hindu Kush-Wakhan domain. Age conflict confirmed — the dataset lists Permian only; extend to Permian-Triassic (author to confirm).

Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011)
Age corrected from "Permian (Sakmarian–Midian)" to "Permian to Triassic" per Zanchi & Gaetani (2011, Fig. 19, North Karakoram Terrain correlation chart); author-approved 2026-07-17.

Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011)
Zanchi & Gaetani (2011): the Atark unit (Buchroithner 1978, 1980; emended Gaetani & Leven 1993) records evolution from an Early Permian continental/marine terrigenous plain and carbonate ramp (Early Permian fusulinids in the lower part) to a wide Late Triassic carbonate platform bearing large bivalves (megalodontids, dasycladacean algae in the Atark Dolostone). Mapped as three facies — Atark Slates (?Permian), Atark Black Limestone (?Permian, >100 m) and Atark Dolostone (Triassic).

Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011)
Gaetani et al. (1996) (after Gaetani & Leven 1993; term introduced Buchroithner 1978): the Atark unit is mostly whitish massive dolostone and limestone, incipiently marbleised and tightly folded; megalodonts and dasycladacean algae near Aliabad indicate a Triassic age, while a Permian section with megalodonts and possibly rudists at Rosh Gol extends the range, together suggesting an age span from the Permian to ?Cretaceous (broader than the Permian-Triassic recorded here). Exposed in Chitral between the Tirich Mir fault and a fault to the north, disappearing east of Lasht.

Gaetani, M., Le Fort, P., Tanoli, S., Angiolini, L., Nicora, A., Sciunnach, D. & Khan, A. (1996)

Sources (4)

Gaetani, M. & Leven, E. Ya. (1993). Permian stratigraphy, NW Karakoram.
Malkani, M. S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, Vol. 24.
Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
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: medium

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.

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Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_atarkformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Atark 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/atark-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Buchroithner (1978).