Cenozoic • Paleogene In GSP lexicon

Kirthar Formation

Middle to Late Eocene

Cited in 10 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Cenozoic · Paleogene · Middle EoceneMiddle to Late Eocene
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Kirthar Range
Thickness: 500-800 m
Lithology: Thick grey, massive to thick-bedded, fossiliferous nummulitic limestone.
Synonyms: Not recorded

The thick Middle Eocene nummulitic limestone of the Kirthar Range — the basin's namesake unit.

Type formation of Kirthar Range. Thick carbonate sequence forming backbone of the range. Richest larger foraminifera fauna in Pakistan.

Fossils

Nummulites Larger foraminifera

Contacts

In the Kirthar Range column

SandstoneLimestoneMixedFossils 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

Kirthar Range

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: shallow marine
Coordinates: Not recorded

See it in the field

Geoheritage site where this unit is exposed at outcrop.

Kirthar Range & National Park

Kirthar Range

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Reservoir Cement & lime

A major Eocene limestone, used locally as building and cement stone and forming reservoir intervals.

Remarks

The thick Middle Eocene nummulitic limestone of the Kirthar Range that gives the basin its name; in the Sulaiman and Kohat areas it is divided into the Habib Rahi, Domanda, Pirkoh and Drazinda formations.

Research notes (7)

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 (3)

Afzal, Williams & Aldridge (2009) date the Kirthar Formation to planktonic foraminiferal Zones P12-P15? (late Lutetian to early Priabonian) and shallow benthonic Zones SBZ13-SBZ18 on Assilina spinosa, A. exponens, A. cancellata, Nummulites beaumonti and Discocyclina sowerbyi (Eames 1952; Nagappa 1959; Weiss 1993; Wakefield & Monteil 2002; Warraich & Nishi 2003), superseding the older broad Ypresian-Priabonian assignment of Shah (1977). Consistent with the curated Middle to Late Eocene age.

Afzal, J., Williams, M. & Aldridge, R.J. (2009)
Jones (1997): larger benthonic nummulitids, planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils indicate an essentially Middle–?Late Eocene age, resolved through the Kirthar Formation's four members — Habib Rahi (early Middle Eocene), Domanda ('mid' Middle Eocene), Pir Koh ('mid' Middle Eocene) and Drazinda (late Middle Eocene).

Jones, R.W. (1997)
Khan (1968) places the Khirthar (Kirthar) Formation as Lutetian to Rupelian, with a regional hiatus spanning the late Auversian and Bartonian; the upper Khirthar Limestone (Gorag Member) yields a Lattorfian assemblage (Nummulites intermedius/fichteli, Austrotrillina paucialveolata, devoid of Eulepidina).

Khan, M.H. (1968)

Lithology (1)

Corroborated by USGS OFR 94-689: the middle-and-lower Eocene Kirthar Formation is light-gray to pale-brown, thick-bedded to massive, highly fossiliferous limestone interbedded with marl and shale (~50% marl/shale) of the marine-shelf sequence.

Maldonado, F., Khan, S.H. & Mengal, J.M. (1994)

Stratigraphic contacts (1)

Khan & Clyde (2013): the middle Eocene Kirthar/Spintangi limestone overlies the Ghazij Formation along a time-transgressive contact that youngs away from the Axial Belt (Ghazij thins, the overlying limestone thickens, toward the Marri-Bugti Hills).

Khan, I.H. & Clyde, W.C. (2013)

Depositional environment (1)

Jones (1997): the Kirthar records a range of carbonate-platform and associated basinal sub-environments — back-bank lagoon (Miliolida), proximal high-energy bank/fore-bank (nummulitid–discocyclinid grainstone) and distal basinal (stress-tolerant Buliminida) — its members tracking successive Haq et al. (1987) third-order sequences TA3.2–TA3.6.

Jones, R.W. (1997)

Sources (8)

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.
Indian Plate Lexicon (indplex.geolex.org), Geological Society of India and international compilation.
Afzal, J., Williams, M. & Aldridge, R.J. (2009). Revised stratigraphy of the lower Cenozoic succession of the Greater Indus Basin in Pakistan. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 28(1): 7-23.
Maldonado, F., Khan, S.H. & Mengal, J.M. (1994). Preliminary Geologic Map of Parts of Loralai, Sibi, Quetta, and Khuzdar Divisions, Balochistan Province, West-Central Pakistan. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 94-689, 20 p., 1 sheet.
Khan, I.H. & Clyde, W.C. (2013). Lower Paleogene Tectonostratigraphy of Balochistan: Evidence for Time-Transgressive Late Paleocene-Early Eocene Uplift. Geosciences, 3(3), 466-501.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
Jones, R.W. (1997). Aspects of the Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Northern Sulaiman Ranges, Pakistan. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 16(1), 51-58.

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.

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Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_kirtharformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Kirthar 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/kirthar-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

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