Paleozoic • Late Paleozoic formation GSP memoir

Lwarani Mela Limestone

Late Paleozoic

Northern Indus Suture · Malakand

Cited in 2 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · Late PaleozoicLate Paleozoic
Named by: Tahirkheli et al. (1975)
Type locality: Lwarai Mela, Malakand area
Thickness: ~51 m
Lithology: Limestone.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A limestone unit of the Malakand area at Lwarai Mela.

Lwarani Mela limestone is named after the Lwarai Mela village, 4Km NE of Baraghat by Tahirkheli et al. (1975) for the limestone with some slates. Baraghat slates is named after the Baraghat village by Tahirkheli et al. (1975) for slates and phyllites. Barai quartzite is named after the Barai village about 2.4km NE of Baraghat village by Tahirkheli et al. (1975) for the quartzites.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Swat–Malakand column

MetamorphicLimestoneContact not recordedUnconformityIntrusive

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

Swat–Malakand

Basin: Northern Indus Suture
Region: Malakand
Depositional environment: marine
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A limestone unit of the Malakand/Swat area (Tahirkheli et al., 1975).

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)

Kazmi & Abbasi (2008) gap-fill: the Lwarai Mela Limestone (type Lwarai Mela Village, ~4 km NE of Baraghat) is ~51 m of brownish-grey, thin-bedded to massive, banded limestone with subordinate slaty shale, intruded by dolerite sills and unfossiliferous — the base of the late-Palaeozoic Khyber Bara-Valley sequence (Lwarai Mela Limestone → Baraghat Slates → Barai Quartzite → Spinkai Formation; Tahirkheli et al. 1975). Conformably(?) overlain by the Baraghat Slates; in thrust contact with the Murree Formation to the south. NOTE: distinct from the Lowara Mena Formation (Devonian–Carboniferous phyllite, Ghundai Sar) despite the similar name — the book indexes them separately.

Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008)

Thickness (1)

Thickness surfaced from the age note: the Lwarai Mela Limestone is ~51 m of brownish-grey banded limestone with subordinate slaty shale (Kazmi & Abbasi 2008).

Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008)

Sources (2)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
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.

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.

Spotted an error? Suggest a sourced correction →

Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_lwaranimelalimestone,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Lwarani Mela 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/lwarani-mela-limestone (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Tahirkheli et al. (1975).