Paleozoic • Carboniferous–Triassic formation GSP memoir

Burawai Formation

Late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic (post-Late-Carboniferous cover; correlated with the Panjal Volcanics)

Northern Indus Suture · Hazara Sub-Basin

Carboniferous–Triassic in the time scale →

Cited in 4 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · Carboniferous–TriassicLate Palaeozoic to Mesozoic (post-Late-Carboniferous cover; correlated with the Panjal Volcanics)
Named by: Greco et al. (1989)
Type locality: Burawai, Upper Kaghan valley34.9420°N, 73.8690°E
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Metasedimentary schist, marble and paragneiss.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A Paleozoic–Mesozoic metasedimentary unit (schist, marble, gneiss) of the Burawai area, Upper Kaghan.

The Burawai Formation is named after Burawai village in the Kaghan valley by Chaudhry and Ghazanfar (1987) for schists, marbles and paragneisses of Palaeo-Mesozoic age. It is one of the constituent units of the Sharda Group (described by Chaudhry et al. 1986 for gneisses, marble, granites and amphibolites), which is exposed from the Kunhar valley NE of Batal to Babusar pass, between the MMT and the north-dipping Batal thrust (Treloar et al. 1989b), and is similar to the Alpurai Group of Swat. The Sharda Group comprises the basal Di Khari granite gneiss (Cambrian and older), the Naran formation (named after Naran village by Greco et al. 1989, 1993 for metapelitic-metagreywacke gneisses), the Dadar granite-migmatite complex and the Burawai Formation.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Hazara Basin column

LimestoneMetamorphicFossils recordedContact not recordedUnconformity

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type (wavy = unconformity inferred from a missing period); 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

Hazara Basin

Basin: Northern Indus Suture
Region: Hazara Sub-Basin
Depositional environment: Not recorded
Coordinates: 34.9420°N, 73.8690°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

The Paleozoic–Mesozoic metasedimentary cover sequence of the Sharda Group in the Upper Kaghan valley (Greco et al., 1989), above the Naran Formation in the inverted Kaghan nappe pile.

Research notes (1)

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 (1)

Kazmi & Abbasi (2008) CORRECTION: the Burawai Formation is the Palaeozoic–Mesozoic cover overlying the Naran Formation in the Kaghan Valley, correlated with the Panjal Volcanics (Late Carboniferous and younger) — not 'Cambrian' as previously recorded (unsourced). Age corrected to Late Palaeozoic–Mesozoic.

Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008)

Sources (4)

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.
Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008). Stratigraphy and Historical Geology of Pakistan. Department & National Centre of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar. 524 pp. ISBN 978-969-9119.

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). Burawai Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_burawaiformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Burawai 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/burawai-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Greco et al. (1989).