Cenozoic • Neogene formation GSP memoir

Litra Formation

Miocene

Sulaiman Basin

Part of Vihowa Group

Neogene in the time scale →

Cited in 9 sources Last reviewed Aug 10, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Cenozoic · Neogene · Late MioceneMiocene
Named by: Hemphill and Kidwai (1973)
Type locality: Litra Nala, Sulaiman Range31.0167°N, 70.4167°E
Thickness: ~430 m (Litra Nala)
Lithology: Greenish-grey sandstone with subordinate conglomerate and mudstone.
Synonyms: Not recorded

The middle Sulaiman 'Siwalik' sandstone — the arrival of three-toed Hipparion horses dates it to the Late Miocene.

Introduced by Hemphill and Kidwai (1973), type section at Litra Nala, the Litra Formation is grey calcareous sandstone with subordinate maroon shale and conglomerate. Its lower contact with the Vihowa Formation and upper contact with the Chaudhwan Formation are disconformable. It is rich in continental vertebrates: Raza et al. (2002) reported gomphotheres, hipparionine horses (Hipparion appearing at about 10.7 Ma in the lower part), bovids, giraffids and suids, and Malkani (2014) described the proboscidean Gomphotherium buzdari. Miocene.

Fossils

Middle Siwalik mammals (incl. hipparionine horses)

Contacts

In the Sulaiman Fold Belt column

SandstoneFossils 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

Sulaiman Fold Belt

Basin: Sulaiman Basin
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: fluvial, continental
Coordinates: 31.0167°N, 70.4167°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

The middle unit of the Sulaiman molasse (Vihowa Group), equivalent to the Middle Siwalik; the appearance of three-toed hipparionine horses in its lower part marks a Late Miocene age.

Research notes (3)

Field-by-field findings drawn from the cited literature. Every statement is traced to a registered source — follow a citation for the full reference.

Fossils & biostratigraphy (2)

Malkani et al. (2022, OJG 12:521-564): the friable greenish-grey sandstone of the Litra Formation in the Sakhi Sarwar area (Dera Ghazi Khan, South Punjab) yielded the new Miocene tomistomine 'false gharial' Sakhibaghoon khizari (Gavialidae/Tomistominae) — reported as the first tomistomine from Indo-Pakistan (a mid-rostrum: premaxillae, maxillae, heterodont teeth, elongate nasal) — and, near Mahoi, the proboscidean Gomphotherium buzdari. NOTE: these are Malkani-corpus taxa; the identifications are attributed, not independently corroborated.

Malkani, M.S., Ilyas, M., Yasin, R., Abbas, A., Samiullah, K., Raza, T., Hassan, S.S.E., Fazal, R.M., Noor, A. & Malik, A. (2022)
Three-toed hipparionine horses (Hipparion) first appear in the lower Litra Formation, dating it to the Late Miocene; the middle Litra shows substantial faunal turnover (open-country bovids, suids and giraffids) comparable to the ~7.5-7.0 Ma community restructuring on the Potwar Plateau (Raza et al. 2002).

Raza, S.M., Cheema, I.U., Downs, W.R., Rajpar, A.R. & Ward, S.C. (2002)

Geological significance (1)

Hemphill & Kidwai (1973, USGS PP 716-B) NAMED the Litra Formation as the middle Siwalik unit, type section at Litra Nala. Late Pliocene (Hipparion cf. antelopinum horse tooth); friable light-grey/brown sandstone with upper conglomerates, ~5,560 ft; equivalent to the Nagri and Chinji formations of the eastern ranges. Hosts uraniferous sandstone near Raki Munh (speculatively tied to dispersed tuffaceous material).

Hemphill, W.R. & Kidwai, A.H. (1973)

Sources (9)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
Malkani, M.S. et al. (2018). Tectonic Map of Sulaiman Fold Belt, Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan.
Lindsay, E.H., Flynn, L.J. et al. (2005). Miocene stratigraphy and mammal fauna from the Sulaiman Range, Southwestern Himalayas, Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Indian Plate Lexicon (indplex.geolex.org), Geological Society of India and international compilation.
Malkani, M.S., Ilyas, M., Yasin, R., Abbas, A., Samiullah, K., Raza, T., Hassan, S.S.E., Fazal, R.M., Noor, A. & Malik, A. (2022). Geology of Northern Sulaiman Foldbelt, Shirani and Waziristan Regions (South Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa): New Tomistominae (Miocene False Gharial) from Sakhi Sarwar Area of Dera Ghazi Khan (South Punjab), Pakistan. Open Journal of Geology, 12(6), 521-564.
Malkani, M.S., Khosa, M.H., Alyani, M.I., Somro, N., Zafar, T., Arif, J. & Aleem, M.Z. (2017). Revised Stratigraphic Setup and Mineral Deposits of Kirthar Basin (Lower Indus Basin), Pakistan. Lasbela University Journal of Science and Technology, VI, 54-84.
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.
Malkani, M.S., Mahmood, Z., Somro, N. & Shaikh, S.I. (2017). Revised Stratigraphy and Mineral Resources of Kirthar Basin, Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Information Release No. 1010.
Hemphill, W.R. & Kidwai, A.H. (1973). Stratigraphy of the Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan Areas, Pakistan. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 716-B (Geological Investigations in Pakistan), 36 p.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_litraformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Litra 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/litra-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Hemphill and Kidwai (1973).

Below · older

Vihowa Formation

Neogene

Above · younger

Chaudhwan Formation