Cenozoic • Paleogene In GSP lexicon

Panoba Formation

Early Eocene

Cited in 7 sources Last reviewed Jul 17, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Cenozoic · Paleogene · Early EoceneEarly Eocene
Named by: Eames (1952)
Type locality: South of Panoba village, Kohat33.6167°N, 71.5833°E
Thickness: 40 m
Lithology: Shale, marl with gypsum interbeds
Synonyms: Not recorded

A burrowed, gypsum-bearing Eocene shale of the Kohat area that grades sideways into rock salt — a record of a shrinking, salty sea.

Named after Panoba area. Represents restricted marine conditions in Kohat Basin. Part of the Panoba Group.

Fossils

Globorotalia aequa Globorotalia quadrata Assilina pustulosa Orbitolites complanatus Nummulites sp.Operculina sp.

Contacts

In the Kohat Basin column

Shale / mudLimestoneSandstoneFossils recordedConformableContact 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.

Distribution & setting

Kohat Basin

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: restricted marine, evaporitic
Coordinates: 33.6167°N, 71.5833°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Salt & evaporites

Part of the salt-and-gypsum-bearing Eocene succession of the Kohat Plateau; it grades southward into the Bahadur Khel Salt and is itself gypsiferous.

Remarks

An Early Eocene shale of the Kohat sub-basin deposited in a restricted, partly desiccated, gypsum-precipitating basin; it grades laterally into the Bahadur Khel Salt and records hypersaline conditions on the Eocene Kohat platform.

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.

Age & correlation (2)

Afzal, Williams & Aldridge (2009) assign the Panoba Formation to shallow benthonic Zone SBZ10 (Ypresian, Early Eocene) on larger benthonic foraminifera (Meissner et al. 1968, in Shah 1977). It conformably overlies the Patala Formation in most of the Kohat area and is overlain by the Shekhan Formation or the Jatta Gypsum / Bahadur Khel Salt. Consistent with the curated Early Eocene age.

Afzal, J., Williams, M. & Aldridge, R.J. (2009)
Ahmad, Kroon, Rigby & Khan (2016, Stratigraphy 13(4)) place the Panoba Formation in the Panoba Nala section within their BFZ 3 Zone (FO Nummulites atacicus/N. globulus and Orbitolites complanatus; ~40 m thick), correlated to SBZ 8-11 of Serra-Kiel et al. (1998) and the Laki Stage - i.e. early Eocene (Middle Ilerdian 2-Middle Cuisian). The associated LBF include O. complanatus, R. sahini, N. pinfoldi, A. spinosa, A. laminosa, Alveolina elliptica, Lockhartia conica and Operculina sp. They date the regional cessation of marine sedimentation at this level to ~50-49.5 Ma. Corroborates the curated Early Eocene age.

Ahmad, S., Kroon, D., Rigby, S. & Khan, S. (2016)

Type locality & location (2)

Reviewer-confirmed coordinate (33.6050, 71.9000) for the Panoba Shale, south of Panoba Village, Kohat. This overrides the gazetteer conversion of Shah's (2009) type-section longitude (Shah DMS 33 deg 37' N, 71 deg 35' E); the reviewer places it ~0.3 deg east.

Shah, S.M.I. (2009)
Reviewer chose Shah's (2009) published type locality for the Panoba Shale, south of Panoba Village, Kohat (33 deg 37' N, 71 deg 35' E) = 33.6167, 71.5833, superseding the earlier reviewer value of 33.6050, 71.9000.

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.
Afzal, J., Williams, M. & Aldridge, R.J. (2009). Revised stratigraphy of the lower Cenozoic succession of the Greater Indus Basin in Pakistan. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 28(1): 7-23.
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). Panoba Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_panobaformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Panoba 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/panoba-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Eames (1952).

Below · older

Patala Formation

Paleogene

Above · younger

Shekhan Formation