Paleozoic Literature

Karapa Greenschist

Late Carboniferous to Late Triassic (bracketed by bounding formations)

Cited in 3 sources Last reviewed Aug 10, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: PaleozoicLate Carboniferous to Late Triassic (bracketed by bounding formations)
Named by: Pogue and Hussain (1986)
Type locality: South-facing slope of Gumbat Sar between Karapa and Sonigram villages; well exposed near Karapa village, about 30 km NE of Baroch (Survey of Pakistan Topographic Sheet 43B/7).
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Metamorphosed tholeiitic basalt (greenschist), identified on geochemical analyses.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A metamorphosed basalt (greenschist) layer in the Peshawar-basin succession, dated only by the fossil ages of the rocks above and below it.

The Karapa Greenschist is a metamorphosed tholeiitic basalt (greenschist) of the Peshawar basin, lying between the Carboniferous Jafar Kandao Formation below and the Late Triassic (Carnian) Kashala Formation above. It is not directly dated; its age is bracketed only as late Carboniferous (Westphalian) to late Triassic (Carnian) from the conodont ages of the bounding formations. Its type area is on the south-facing slope of Gumbat Sar between Karapa and Sonigram villages, well exposed near Karapa village about 30 km NE of Baroch.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Hazara Basin column

LimestoneMetamorphicFossils 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

Hazara Basin

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: volcanic
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A greenschist-facies metatholeiite intercalated in the Peshawar-basin Palaeozoic-Mesozoic succession, interpreted as a metamorphosed volcanic horizon; its wide late-Carboniferous to late-Triassic age bracket derives solely from the conodont-dated formations above and below it (Pogue, Harris & Hussain 1992; Hussain, DiPietro & Pogue 1998).

Research notes (2)

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)

Assigned era = Paleozoic by the older-bound rule for boundary-straddling units: the age is only bracketed by the bounding Jafar Kandao and Kashala formations as Late Carboniferous to Late Triassic, so the older bound (Late Carboniferous, Paleozoic) is used; period/epoch left unset as the bracket spans multiple periods.

Pogue, K.R., Harris, A.G. & Hussain, A. (1992)

Geological significance (1)

Tahirkheli, Khan & Mian (1993): the Warsak basic rocks near Peshawar (tholeiitic microgabbros, dolerites and metabasalts) are initial-rift-stage continental tholeiites of within-plate affinity, and their volcanic/volcaniclastic component is directly correlatable with the Karapa Greenschist of the Ambela area (and the amphibolite marker of the upper Marghazar Formation of Lower Swat) - all of Permo-Triassic 'Panjal' affinity, correlated with the Panjal volcanics of Kaghan and Kashmir. This supports a Permo-Triassic (Panjal rift) origin and age for the Karapa Greenschist, consistent with its bracketed age.

Tahirkheli, T., Khan, M.A. & Mian, I. (1993)

Sources (3)

Pogue, K.R., Harris, A.G. & Hussain, A. (1992). Paleozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy of the Peshawar basin, Pakistan: Correlations and implications. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 104(8), 915-927.
Hussain, A., DiPietro, J.A. & Pogue, K.R. (1998). Stratigraphy and structure of the Peshawar basin, Pakistan. Journal of Nepal Geological Society, 18, 25-35.
Tahirkheli, T., Khan, M.A. & Mian, I. (1993). The Warsak basic rocks: Initial-rift stage continental tholeiites of Permo-Triassic 'Panjal' affinity. Geological Bulletin, University of Peshawar, 26, 17-33.

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: Defined in journal or other literature; not found in a GSP memoir. There is no body currently ratifying unit status, so provenance is shown in place of a formal ruling.

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Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_karapagreenschist,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Karapa Greenschist} --- 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/karapa-greenschist (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Pogue and Hussain (1986).

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