Nagri Formation
Late Miocene (Tortonian-Messinian)
Part of Siwalik Group
Neogene in the time scale →Cited in 16 sources Last reviewed Aug 10, 2026
- Rank
- Not recorded
- Status
- Published
- Age
- Cenozoic · Neogene · MioceneLate Miocene (Tortonian-Messinian)
- Named by
- Lewis (1937)
- Type locality
- Nagri (Sethi Nagri), Potwar Plateau
- Thickness
- 500-700 m
- Lithology
- Grey sandstone with red clay interbeds
- Synonyms
- Not recorded
A thick Late-Miocene river-sandstone of the Potwar recording a fresh pulse of Himalayan uplift; its fossils include the first three-toed Hipparion horses.
Coarse-grained fluvial sequence indicating renewed Himalayan uplift and erosion.
Fossils
Contacts
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
- Basin
- Not recorded
- Region
- Not recorded
- 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
A thick, sandstone-dominated Late-Miocene unit of the Middle Siwalik, defined by Lewis (1937), whose type area at Sethi Nagri yields Pilgrim's classic 'Nagri' mammal fauna. Its coarse channel sandstones record renewed Himalayan uplift and erosion; the appearance of three-toed hipparionine horses marks its ~10-8 Ma age.
Research notes (12)
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's compiled lexicon. Adds the definitional GSP/SCP lexicon citation.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009)
Age & correlation (5)
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Johnson et al. (1982): nominal stratotype age range 10.1–7.9 Ma. The conspicuous long normal-polarity zone within the Nagri Formation (magnetic Chron 9) is radiometrically (fission-track) dated at 9.50 ± 0.63 Ma, anchoring the Middle Siwalik chronology.
Johnson, N.M., Opdyke, N.D., Johnson, G.D., Lindsay, E.H. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1982)
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Barndt et al. (1978), Dhok Pathan type area (204 palaeomagnetic sites): the Nagri Formation spans 10.0–8.6 Ma locally, with Ramapithecus and other hominoid primates occurring in Epoch 9 at about 9 Ma.
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Nomenclature (Khan et al. 1988): Hemphill & Kidwai (1973) proposed extending 'Nagri Formation' to the Trans-Indus channel-sandstone unit (the Marwat Formation), but Khan et al. reject the correlation — the Trans-Indus Marwat is medial-to-late Pliocene and younger (Gauss chron and above), not the late-Miocene Nagri type section. The curated age of the Nagri type section is unaffected.
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Tauxe & Badgley (1988): a single palaeomagnetic reversal dated ~8.1–8.4 Ma (upper Nagri / Nagri–Dhok Pathan interval), traced through six correlated sections, is time-transgressive — its position reflects local relief and lateral variability in sediment-accumulation rate (transitional-interval thickness is inversely correlated with accumulation rate), so individual Siwalik lithostratigraphic units are diachronous.
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Hemphill & Kidwai (1973, USGS PP 716-B): in the Marwat-Bhittanni ranges the Nagri Formation is early Pleistocene (mammalian fauna, Morris 1938) - younger than the late-Miocene-early-Pliocene Nagri of the Potwar, an example of Siwalik time-transgression - and is ~5,353 ft of grey sandstone with brown siltstone. It contains the contested 'Bain boulder bed' (~30 ft of unsorted boulders in a powdery matrix), read as glacial by Morris (1938) but as a volcanic/pumiceous mudflow by Danilchik and as a fanglomerate by Gansser; the authors saw no direct evidence of glaciation.
Hemphill, W.R. & Kidwai, A.H. (1973)
Lithology (5)
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Iqbal et al. (2018): in the Rumbli–Panjar area (Hazara–Kashmir syntaxis) the Nagri Formation is red to purple, greenish-grey and ash-grey sandstone and siltstone with purple to reddish-brown mudstone. Local section thickness ~1160 m (Kashmir Basin, after Islam 2006).
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Gill (1951): the Nagri Stage of the Northern Potwar is characterised by pepper-coloured (salt-and-pepper) sandstones — the arenaceous middle Siwalik unit above the Chinji Stage.
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Flynn et al. (2016): the Late Miocene Nagri Formation is dominated by thick, multi-storied sand bodies, in contrast to the finer-grained Chinji below and Dhok Pathan above.
Flynn, L.J., Pilbeam, D., Barry, J.C., Morgan, M.E. & Raza, S.M. (2016)
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Munthe et al. (1979): at Daud Khel the Nagri Formation is 1,025 m thick and 56% sandstone - thick, intensively cross-bedded greenish-gray sandstone (cliff-forming in the lower part, coarser than the Chinji), with well-rounded igneous pebbles common in the upper third, and dull-red siltstone. It is harder to separate from the overlying Dhok Pathan than in the central Potwar because it lacks the typical multistoried sandstone bodies.
Munthe, J., Hussain, S.T., Lukacs, J.R., West, R.M. & Shah, S.M.I. (1979)
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Yasin et al. (2017), Sudhnoti–Poonch (Azad Kashmir): the Nagri Formation is light-grey sandstone with shale, clay and scanty conglomerate showing planar bedding and ripple marks; the sandstone is coarse-grained, salt-and-pepper and calcite-cemented at Thorar and micaceous, thick-bedded to massive at Dar, with carbonate (calcrete) concretions in the shale, and carries clasts of volcanics, quartzite, schist and chert.
Thickness (1)
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Gill (1951): south of the Dhulian oilfield the Nagri Stage is ~4700 ft (~1430 m) thick with more than 65% massive sandstone; near the Indus in the west its upper part carries thick conglomerate beds that pass eastward into massive sandstone, part of a channel-to-flood-plain facies change across the northern Potwar.
Sources (16)
- 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.
- 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.
- Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
- Johnson, N.M., Opdyke, N.D., Johnson, G.D., Lindsay, E.H. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1982). Magnetic polarity stratigraphy and ages of Siwalik Group rocks of the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 37, 17-42.
- Barndt, J., Johnson, N.M., Johnson, G.D., Opdyke, N.D., Lindsay, E.H., Pilbeam, D. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1978). The magnetic polarity stratigraphy and age of the Siwalik Group near Dhok Pathan Village, Potwar Plateau, Pakistan. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 41, 355-364.
- Iqbal, O., Baig, M.S., Pervez, S. & Siddiqi, M.I. (2018). Structure and Stratigraphy of Rumbli and Panjar Areas of Kashmir and Pakistan with the Aid of GIS. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 91, 57-66.
- Khan, M.J., Opdyke, N.D. & Tahirkheli, R.A.K. (1988). Magnetic stratigraphy of the Siwalik Group, Bhittani, Marwat and Khasor Ranges, northwestern Pakistan, and the timing of Neogene tectonics of the Trans Indus. Journal of Geophysical Research, 93(B10), 11773-11790.
- Gill, W.D. (1951). The stratigraphy of the Siwalik Series in the Northern Potwar, Punjab, Pakistan. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 107, 375-394.
- Tauxe, L. & Badgley, C. (1988). Stratigraphy and remanence acquisition of a palaeomagnetic reversal in alluvial Siwalik rocks of Pakistan. Sedimentology, 35, 697-715.
- 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.
- Flynn, L.J., Pilbeam, D., Barry, J.C., Morgan, M.E. & Raza, S.M. (2016). Siwalik synopsis: a long stratigraphic sequence for the Later Cenozoic of South Asia. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 15(7), 877-887.
- 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.
- Munthe, J., Hussain, S.T., Lukacs, J.R., West, R.M. & Shah, S.M.I. (1979). Neogene Stratigraphy of the Daud Khel Area, Mianwali District, Pakistan. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology, 23, 1-18.
- Yasin, M., Ali, S.M.K., Munir, M.H. & Ishfaque, M. (2017). The sedimentary geology, remote sensing, geomorphology and petrology of Miocene to Late Pliocene sediments in District Sudhunhoti and Poonch, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. Earth Science Malaysia, 1(1), 8-14.
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.
Cite this unit
Qudsi, L. (2026). Nagri Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991
@misc{stratigraphypk_nagriformation,
author = {Qudsi, Lareb},
title = {{Nagri 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/nagri-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).
To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Lewis (1937).
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