Paleozoic • Carboniferous formation In GSP lexicon

Lupsuk Formation

Carboniferous

Karakoram-Hindukush Basin · Central Karakoram Batholith

Carboniferous in the time scale →

Cited in 6 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · Carboniferous · Late CarboniferousCarboniferous
Named by: Gaetani et al. (2004)
Type locality: Lupsuk glacier, north of Karambar Pass36.9200°N, 73.7000°E
Thickness: ~250 m (Karambar sheet)
Lithology: Quartzarenite, microconglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and limestone, with a cliff-forming carbonate upper part.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A Carboniferous sandstone-and-limestone unit whose upper carbonate forms the Twin Valley Member.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Karakoram column

MetamorphicConglomerateLimestoneFossils 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.

Constituent units

Formations that make up this formation, in stratigraphic order (youngest at top, as in the column).

1 Twin Valley Member Carboniferous

Distribution & setting

Karakoram

Basin: Karakoram-Hindukush Basin
Region: Central Karakoram Batholith
Depositional environment: marine, shallow marine
Coordinates: 36.9200°N, 73.7000°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A Carboniferous clastic–carbonate unit of the upper Karambar region; its cliff-forming carbonate upper part is separately named the Twin Valley Member.

Research notes (4)

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 (2)

Zanchi & Gaetani (2011): the Lupsuk Formation carries two brachiopod assemblages — a basal spiriferid-dominated Serpukhovian fauna and an upper assemblage referred to the latest Carboniferous. About 400 m of fine arenites, siltstones, slates, hybrid calcarenites and thin conglomerates (Karambar Unit; Gaetani et al. 2004b), recording renewed coarse terrigenous input in shore-face to fore-delta settings; contains the Twin Valleys Member and sulphate nodules at the top.

Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011)
Gaetani et al. (2004) — DEFINES the Lupsuk Formation (new name; Lupsuk Glacier / Ribat valley, Karambar Unit): subarkoses to feldspathic quartzarenites in thick beds alternating with dark shales and siltstones, up to ~400 m thick, dated Serpukhovian to Moscovian (uppermost Carboniferous) — a syn-rift terrigenous phase between the Ribat Formation and the basal quartzarenites of the Gircha Formation. Corroborates the curated Carboniferous age and adds the definitional source.

Gaetani, M., Zanchi, A., Angiolini, L., Olivini, G., Sciunnach, D., Brunton, H., Nicora, A. & Mawson, R. (2004)

Constituent units (1)

CONFIRMED against Zanchi & Gaetani (2011, Fig. 19): the Lupsuk Formation is Upper Carboniferous, ~250 m in the Karambar sheet, and CONTAINS the Twin Valleys Member (bioclastic limestone) — now wired as a member. Thickness and Late-Carboniferous epoch gap-filled.

Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011)

Sources (7)

Gaetani, M. et al. (2004); Angiolini, L. et al. (1999). Twin Valley Member, Late Carboniferous (Moscovian brachiopods).
Malkani, M. S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, Vol. 24.
Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
OpenStreetMap contributors and GEOnet Names Server (public geographic gazetteers), used to geolocate named GSP type localities to approximate decimal coordinates.
Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011). The geology of the Karakoram range, Pakistan: the new 1:100,000 geological map of Central-Western Karakoram. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 130(2), 161-262.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
Gaetani, M., Zanchi, A., Angiolini, L., Olivini, G., Sciunnach, D., Brunton, H., Nicora, A. & Mawson, R. (2004). The Carboniferous of the Western Karakoram (Pakistan). Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 23(2), 275-305.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_lupsukformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Lupsuk 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/lupsuk-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Gaetani et al. (2004).