Dhok Pathan Formation
Late Miocene to Early Pliocene
Part of Siwalik Group
Neogene in the time scale →Cited in 20 sources Last reviewed Aug 10, 2026
- Rank
- Not recorded
- Status
- Published
- Age
- Cenozoic · Neogene · Miocene-PlioceneLate Miocene to Early Pliocene
- Named by
- Blanford (1876)
- Type locality
- Dhok Pathan village33.1302°N, 72.3470°E
- Thickness
- 1,330–2,000 m
- Lithology
- Grey and brown sandstone with clay interbeds
- Synonyms
- Not recorded
A thick Pliocene river-laid sandstone-and-clay of the Siwaliks, rich in fossil mammals.
Fluvial sequence recording Miocene-Pliocene transition. Contains diverse mammal fauna including hominoid primates.
Fossils
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
- Not recorded
- Region
- Not recorded
- Depositional environment
- fluvial, continental
- Coordinates
- 33.1302°N, 72.3470°E
Correlation
Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →
Economic significance
Not recorded
Remarks
A thick fluvial Siwalik molasse unit (interbedded sandstone and clay) recording Himalayan foreland deposition; it rests transitionally on the Nagri Formation and is renowned for its rich Siwalik mammalian fauna, central to studies of Neogene vertebrate evolution in the subcontinent.
Research notes (13)
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 (3)
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Johnson et al. (1982): nominal stratotype age range 7.9–5.1 Ma (lower boundary at the Nagri–Dhok Pathan contact ~7.9 Ma near the base of Chron 8; upper boundary at the Tatrot ‘stratotype’, Tatrot–Andar section, ~5.1 Ma). Both bounds are lithofacies boundaries and locally time-transgressive.
Johnson, N.M., Opdyke, N.D., Johnson, G.D., Lindsay, E.H. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1982)
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Badgley & Tauxe (1990): dense transition-stratigraphy sampling of a magnetic reversal within the Dhok Pathan Formation reveals highly variable accumulation rates over 10^3–10^4 yr and time-transgressive paleosol and floodplain-marsh horizons, underscoring that the formation boundaries are diachronous.
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Nomenclature (Javed Khan & Opdyke 1981): Hemphill & Kidwai (1973) proposed extending 'Dhok Pathan Formation' to the Trans-Indus Sheri Gasha Formation, but this is rejected — the Sheri Gasha is Plio-Pleistocene, not the middle–late Miocene Dhok Pathan type section. The curated age of the Dhok Pathan type section is unaffected.
Lithology (7)
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Iqbal et al. (2018): in the Rumbli–Panjar area the Dhok Pathan Formation is dominantly greenish-grey, massive, medium- to coarse-grained sandstone with siltstone and mudstone. Local section thickness ~1720 m (Kashmir Basin, after Islam 2006).
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Gill (1951): the Dhok Pathan Stage of the Northern Potwar is characterised by variegated shales with sandstone — the upper Middle Siwalik unit above the Nagri Stage.
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Flynn et al. (2016): the Dhok Pathan Formation comprises channel sand deposits interbedded with finer floodplain silts, succeeding the thick-sand Nagri Formation; Pliocene Upper Siwalik units above include conglomeratic sands.
Flynn, L.J., Pilbeam, D., Barry, J.C., Morgan, M.E. & Raza, S.M. (2016)
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Munthe et al. (1979): at Daud Khel the Dhok Pathan Formation is 778 m thick (top not present) and ~58% sandstone that becomes lighter-coloured and less indurated upward with upward-increasing pebble/cobble conglomerate, plus yellowish-orange claystone and siltstone; the red-to-orange mudstone colour change marks its base. It is laterally continuous with the Gaud Nala reference section of Fatmi (1974); the authors decline to subdivide it into members.
Munthe, J., Hussain, S.T., Lukacs, J.R., West, R.M. & Shah, S.M.I. (1979)
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Yasin et al. (2017), Sudhnoti–Poonch (Azad Kashmir): the Dhok Pathan Formation shows the typical alternation of sandstone and clay (about 50:50 sandstone:clay in the Kashmir Basin) — loose, friable, thick-bedded, calcareous dark-grey to black sandstone with brown to reddish-brown clays and conglomerate lenses that increase towards the top; its medium- to coarse-grained sandstone carries clasts of gneiss, schist, quartzite, granite, carbonate and marble.
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Yasin et al. (2017): modal analysis of the area's Miocene–Pliocene Siwalik sandstones gives quartz 23–45%, feldspar 3–13% and lithic fragments (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary), classifying them as lithic arenite and lithic greywacke; pebble imbrication, planar bedding and ripple marks record palaeoflow from north to south, and calcrete concretions indicate a warm, semi-arid climate.
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Sandstone petrography at Kalabagh and Mangla (Chaudhry et al., 1985): the Dhok Pathan Formation here is dominantly subfeldspathic lithic arenites and lithic wackes with calcareous/arenaceous mudstones, derived from a rising provenance of acid-to-intermediate volcanics, cherty limestones (± quartzite, shale, sandstone) and low-grade metamorphics (slate, phyllite, greenschist), with a minor granite contribution.
Chaudhry, M.N., Hussain, K. & Shah, M.A. (1985)
Stratigraphic contacts (1)
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Gill (1951): at its type locality the Dhok Pathan Stage is soft variegated clay alternating with light-coloured sandstone; near the Indus it includes conglomerate, and eastward a 'Dhok Pathan' facies appears at progressively lower levels, giving a heterochronous (diachronous) boundary with the underlying massive Nagri sandstones.
Fossils & biostratigraphy (1)
-
Boselaphine bovid Selenoportax vexillarius (right maxilla with M2–M3, PUPC 06/14; Khan et al., 2006) and the sivatheriine giraffid Bramatherium perimense (parietal horn core PUPC 2004/22, locality H7; Khan et al., 2006) recorded from the Dhok Pathan Formation (Middle Siwaliks) at Hasnot, Jhelum District (~5–7 Ma).
Khan, M.A., Akhtar, M., Iqbal, M., Qureshi, M.A. & Farooq, U. (2006)
Economic significance (1)
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Engineering geology at Pir Pehai, District Mianwali, near the Kalabagh Dam site (Naeem & Farooq, 2006): the cyclic sandstone–claystone/siltstone succession contains tectonic bedding shears in the fine beds that act as failure surfaces; two-wedge analysis recommends a 38° cut slope (factor of safety 1.57–1.95) for stable permanent excavations.
Naeem, M. & Farooq, M.S. (2006)
Sources (16)
- 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.
- Shah, S.M.I. (1977). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 12.
- Indian Plate Lexicon (indplex.geolex.org), Geological Society of India and international compilation.
- Johnson, N.M., Opdyke, N.D., Johnson, G.D., Lindsay, E.H. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1982). Magnetic polarity stratigraphy and ages of Siwalik Group rocks of the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 37, 17-42.
- Barndt, J., Johnson, N.M., Johnson, G.D., Opdyke, N.D., Lindsay, E.H., Pilbeam, D. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1978). The magnetic polarity stratigraphy and age of the Siwalik Group near Dhok Pathan Village, Potwar Plateau, Pakistan. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 41, 355-364.
- Badgley, C. & Tauxe, L. (1990). Paleomagnetic stratigraphy and time in sediments: studies in alluvial Siwalik rocks of Pakistan. Journal of Geology, 98, 457-477.
- Iqbal, O., Baig, M.S., Pervez, S. & Siddiqi, M.I. (2018). Structure and Stratigraphy of Rumbli and Panjar Areas of Kashmir and Pakistan with the Aid of GIS. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 91, 57-66.
- Khan, M.J., Opdyke, N.D. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1988). Magnetic stratigraphy of the Siwalik Group, Bhittani, Marwat and Khasor Ranges, northwestern Pakistan, and the timing of Neogene tectonics of the Trans Indus. Journal of Geophysical Research, 93(B10), 11773-11790.
- Javed Khan, M. & Opdyke, N.D. (1981). The magnetic polarity stratigraphy and correlation of the Upper Siwalik sediments from the Bhittani Range, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 24, 133-141.
- Gill, W.D. (1951). The stratigraphy of the Siwalik Series in the Northern Potwar, Punjab, Pakistan. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 107, 375-394.
- 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.
- Flynn, L.J., Pilbeam, D., Barry, J.C., Morgan, M.E. & Raza, S.M. (2016). Siwalik synopsis: a long stratigraphic sequence for the Later Cenozoic of South Asia. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 15(7), 877-887.
- Munthe, J., Hussain, S.T., Lukacs, J.R., West, R.M. & Shah, S.M.I. (1979). Neogene Stratigraphy of the Daud Khel Area, Mianwali District, Pakistan. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology, 23, 1-18.
- Yasin, M., Ali, S.M.K., Munir, M.H. & Ishfaque, M. (2017). The sedimentary geology, remote sensing, geomorphology and petrology of Miocene to Late Pliocene sediments in District Sudhunhoti and Poonch, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. Earth Science Malaysia, 1(1), 8-14.
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). Dhok Pathan Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991
@misc{stratigraphypk_dhokpathanformation,
author = {Qudsi, Lareb},
title = {{Dhok Pathan 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/dhok-pathan-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).
To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Blanford (1876).
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