Mesozoic • Cretaceous group In GSP lexicon

Mona Jhal Group

Cretaceous

Cited in 6 sources Last reviewed Jul 18, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: group
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Cretaceous · Early–Late CretaceousCretaceous
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Parh Range, Sulaiman
Thickness: 200-600 m
Lithology: Black shale (Sembar), limestone-shale-siltstone (Goru), sandstone (Mekhtar) and pelagic limestone (Parh).
Synonyms: Parh Group

The Cretaceous Parh Group — Sembar, Goru, Mekhtar and Parh — the source-rock-and-reservoir heart of the Indus Basin, plus the Parh marker limestone.

Widespread Late Cretaceous carbonate-marl sequence in southern Pakistan. Type locality in Parh Range, Sulaiman.

Fossils

Planktic foraminifera Ammonites

Contacts

In the Sulaiman Fold Belt column

SandstoneShale / mudLimestoneFossils 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 group, in stratigraphic order (youngest at top, as in the column).

Distribution & setting

Sulaiman Fold Belt Kirthar Range

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

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Source rock Reservoir

Contains the Sembar source rock and Lower Goru reservoir — the core of the Indus Basin petroleum system.

Remarks

The Cretaceous succession of the western Kirthar/Sulaiman region, comprising the Sembar, Goru, Mekhtar and Parh formations; encompasses the Indus Basin's principal hydrocarbon source rock (Sembar), its main Lower Goru gas reservoir, and the persistent Parh pelagic-limestone marker.

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.

Name & nomenclature (3)

USGS OFR 94-689 records that the Parh Group of Hunting Survey Corporation (1961) was renamed and redefined by Fatmi et al. (1986) as the Mona Jhal Group, comprising in descending order the Mughal Kot Formation, Parh Limestone, Goru Formation and Sembar Formation, and locally including the Bibai Formation below the Mughal Kot Formation in the eastern part of the map area.

Maldonado, F., Khan, S.H. & Mengal, J.M. (1994)
Renamed from 'Parh Group' to Mona Jhal Group: Fatmi et al. (1990) — confirmed by USGS OFR 94-689 — superseded the Hunting (1961) 'Parh group' with the Mona Jhal Group (Sembar, Goru, Parh and Mughal Kot formations). The Parh Limestone is retained as a constituent formation.

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

Sources (5)

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.
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.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.

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). Mona Jhal Group. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_monajhalgroup,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Mona Jhal Group} --- 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/mona-jhal-group (accessed October 29, 2026).

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