Mesozoic • Cretaceous formation GSP memoir

Gahirat Limestone

Cretaceous

Karakoram-Hindukush Basin · Central Karakoram Batholith

Cited in 4 sources Last reviewed Jul 14, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · CretaceousCretaceous
Named by: Desio (1958)
Type locality: Gahirat village, about 10 km north of Drosh, Chitral35.6600°N, 71.7900°E
Thickness: up to about 3 km (marble)
Lithology: Grey, massive limestone with coarsely crystalline marble (locally up to about 3 km thick) and a central zone of grey micaceous phyllite.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A thick, fossil-free Cretaceous limestone-and-marble unit near Gahirat, north of Drosh.

Gahirat limestone is named after Gahirat village 10km N of Drosh by Desio (1958) for limestone, phyllite and 3km thick marbles.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Hindukush-Chitral column

ConglomerateLimestoneSandstoneFossils recordedContact not recordedUnconformity

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

Hindukush-Chitral

Basin: Karakoram-Hindukush Basin
Region: Central Karakoram Batholith
Depositional environment: marine, shallow marine
Coordinates: 35.6600°N, 71.7900°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A thick, unfossiliferous platform carbonate/marble that conformably overlies the Koghozi Greenschist on the south-eastern limb of the Chitral Slate anticline; assigned to the Cretaceous by Pudsey et al. (1985), but with a poorly constrained age owing to the absence of fossils.

Sources (3)

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.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_gahiratlimestone,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Gahirat Limestone} --- 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/gahirat-limestone (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Desio (1958).