Barum Formation
Paleozoic (inferred; unfossiliferous)
Karakoram-Hindukush Basin · Southern Metamorphic Belt
Paleozoic (undifferentiated) in the time scale →Cited in 5 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026
- Rank
- formation
- Status
- Published
- Age
- Paleozoic · Paleozoic (undifferentiated)Paleozoic (inferred; unfossiliferous)
- Named by
- Le Fort & Gaetani (1998)
- Type locality
- Barum glacier, north of Ramach, upper Yasin/Darkot region36.4600°N, 73.5200°E
- Thickness
- 300–500 m
- Lithology
- 300–500 m of sandstone, siltstone, slate, microconglomerate and thin limestone, with basal black shale and lenses of white dolomitic marble.
- Synonyms
- Not recorded
A Paleozoic sandstone-and-slate formation of the Darkot Group in the Northern Karakoram, exposed near the Barum Glacier.
The Barum Formation is a Paleozoic clastic unit of the Darkot Group in the Northern Karakoram, exposed around the Barum Glacier in the upper Gazin/Yasin area. It consists of slightly metamorphosed grey to dark sandstones (mostly litharenites) in 10–50 cm beds with microconglomerate seams and rare marly-limestone intercalations; no fossils have been found, and a Paleozoic age is inferred by analogy with the terrigenous successions of the Northern Karakoram. It is one of the three formations (with the Gum and Rawat formations) into which Le Fort & Gaetani (1998) subdivided the Darkot Group.
Fossils
Not recorded
Contacts
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
- Basin
- Karakoram-Hindukush Basin
- Region
- Southern Metamorphic Belt
- Depositional environment
- marine
- Coordinates
- 36.4600°N, 73.5200°E
Correlation
Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →
Economic significance
Not recorded
Remarks
A clastic formation of the Darkot Group (Darkot-Gazin Metasedimentary Belt) of the Northern Karakoram Terrain. Slightly metamorphosed grey to dark litharenites and microconglomerates with slaty intercalations and rare marly-limestone lenses; unfossiliferous, its Paleozoic age is inferred by analogy with the terrigenous successions of the Northern Karakoram (Le Fort & Gaetani 1998; Zanchi & Gaetani 2011).
Research notes (3)
Field-by-field findings drawn from the cited literature. Every statement is traced to a registered source — follow a citation for the full reference.
Name & nomenclature (1)
-
Attested in Shah (2009), Geological Survey of Pakistan Memoir 22 - the Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan's compiled lexicon (listed in the memoir's contents). Adds the definitional GSP/SCP lexicon citation.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009)
Age & correlation (1)
-
Reviewer reconciliation (2026-07-30): the Barum Formation is a single unit — the Darkot-Group clastic formation of Le Fort & Gaetani (1998), not a distinct Cretaceous–Eocene unit. The prior 'Cretaceous–Eocene' age (from the GSP Memoir 24 compilation, uncited on the age field and inconsistent with the unfossiliferous Paleozoic Darkot Group, whose Gum and Rawat formations are Permian–Triassic and Late Palaeozoic) is superseded by the definitional Italian-survey work (Le Fort & Gaetani 1998; Zanchi & Gaetani 2011), which assigns a Paleozoic age by analogy with Northern Karakoram terrigenous successions.
Thickness (1)
-
Baseline thickness '50m' is a migration artifact: it is the thickness of the basal black-shale member, not the whole formation, which is 300–500 m thick. Flag for Phase-6 cleanup.
Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017)
Sources (4)
- Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
- OpenStreetMap contributors and GEOnet Names Server (public geographic gazetteers), used to geolocate named GSP type localities to approximate decimal coordinates.
- Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
- 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: Name attested in the Shah (1977/2009) Geological Survey of Pakistan compilation — the national stratigraphic lexicon. This records where the name is documented; it is not an endorsement of the unit’s definition, age or figures.
Cite this unit
Qudsi, L. (2026). Barum Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991
@misc{stratigraphypk_barumformation,
author = {Qudsi, Lareb},
title = {{Barum 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/barum-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).
To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Le Fort & Gaetani (1998).
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