Mesozoic • Cretaceous formation In GSP lexicon

Purit Formation

Cretaceous

Kohistan-Ladakh Magmatic Arc · Northern Greenstone Belt

Cited in 5 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Cretaceous · CretaceousCretaceous
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Drosh Gol, SE of Kawash35.5500°N, 71.8500°E
Thickness: about 1,000 m
Lithology: Dominantly red shales with subordinate sandstone and conglomerate.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A Cretaceous red-shale unit of the Chitral arc, between the Gawuch and Drosh formations.

Purit formation (1km thick) with Drosh Gol, SE of Kawash type section, consists of dominantly red shales with subordinate sandstones and conglomerates. It is underlain by Gawuch formation and overlain by Drosh formation. According to Pudsey et al. (1985), this formation was mapped as part of the Reshun formation by Calkins et al. (1981), who failed to recognized the Naz Bar fault as an important suture. This formation is 1000m thick in the southeast and wedges out half way through the Shishi valley. The age of the formation on the basis of presence of Orbitolina is Early Cretaceous.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Kohistan Arc column

LimestoneMetamorphicShale / mudIgneousFossils 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.

Distribution & setting

Kohistan Arc

Basin: Kohistan-Ladakh Magmatic Arc
Region: Northern Greenstone Belt
Depositional environment: marine, marginal marine
Coordinates: 35.5500°N, 71.8500°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A Cretaceous red-bed unit of the Chitral arc sequence, between the Gawuch and Drosh formations.

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.

Name & nomenclature (1)

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)

Age & correlation (1)

Kazmi & Jan (1997): the Purit Formation (Cretaceous; type section Drosh Gol) is ~1 km of red calcareous shale with subordinate lithic-feldspathic sandstone and polymict conglomerate (andesite/limestone/volcanic clasts), overlying the Gawuch Formation and overlain by the Drosh Formation in the Chitral Kohistan arc — possibly part of the Yasin Group.

Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997)

Sources (4)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
OpenStreetMap contributors and GEOnet Names Server (public geographic gazetteers), used to geolocate named GSP type localities to approximate decimal coordinates.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997). Geology and Tectonics of Pakistan. Graphic Publishers, Karachi.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_puritformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Purit 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/purit-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

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