Cenozoic • Neogene-Quaternary formation Literature

Marwat Formation

Pliocene to Pleistocene (magnetostratigraphic; Gauss through Matuyama chrons)

Bannu Basin · Trans-Indus Ranges

Cited in 3 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Cenozoic · Neogene-Quaternary · Pliocene-PleistocenePliocene to Pleistocene (magnetostratigraphic; Gauss through Matuyama chrons)
Named by: Morris (1938); usage of Munthe (1981)
Type locality: Marwat Range, Trans-Indus, NW Pakistan (Morris 1938; Munthe 1981).
Thickness: up to ~1800 m (Bain Pass section)
Lithology: Thick brown channel sandstones of the paleo-Indus, devoid of siltstone units (the local equivalent of the Nagri sandstone facies); sediment-accumulation rates ~65-102 cm/1000 yr within the Matuyama chron.
Synonyms: Not recorded

The Marwat Formation is the thick channel-sandstone Upper-Siwalik unit of the Trans-Indus ranges (paleo-Indus deposits, devoid of siltstone units), overlying the Kargocha Formation. Magnetostratigraphy shows its sandstones span the Gauss chron up through the Matuyama chron (medial-to-late Pliocene and Pleistocene); it reaches ~1800 m at Bain Pass and carries Pinjor-age vertebrate fossils. Hemphill & Kidwai (1973) proposed renaming it the Nagri Formation, rejected by Khan et al. (1988).

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

Lower contact — conformable; upper contact — not recorded.

In the Kohat Basin column

ConglomerateSandstoneFossils recordedUnconformityContact not recordedConformable

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

Kohat Basin

Basin: Bannu Basin
Region: Trans-Indus Ranges
Depositional environment: fluvial, continental
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

Records the medial-to-late Pliocene arrival of thick paleo-Indus channel sandstones in the Trans-Indus; contains Pinjor-age vertebrate fauna.

Sources (1)

Khan, M.J., Opdyke, N.D. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1988). Magnetic stratigraphy of the Siwalik Group, Bhittani, Marwat and Khasor Ranges. Journal of Geophysical Research, 93(B10), 11773-11790.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_marwatformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Marwat 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/marwat-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Morris (1938); usage of Munthe (1981).

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