Paleozoic • Carboniferous formation Literature

Sherwan Formation

Late Carboniferous (dolomite; hosted soapstone/talc altered in the Permian)

Hazara Basin · Lesser Himalaya

Cited in 1 source Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · Carboniferous · PennsylvanianLate Carboniferous (dolomite; hosted soapstone/talc altered in the Permian)
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Sherwan area near Abbottabad, Hazara (Lesser Himalaya); soapstone mined at the Khandakhu Mine, ~42 km from Abbottabad.
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Dolostone (dolomite), locally altered to dolostone-hosted soapstone (talc/steatite) with brucite, magnesite, willemseite, montmorillonite, pyrite and hematite.
Synonyms: Not recorded

The Sherwan Formation is a Late Carboniferous dolostone unit of the Hazara Basin (Lesser Himalayan zone) near Sherwan and Abbottabad, notable for hosting economically important soapstone (talc). The host dolomite is dated to the Late Carboniferous by the alga Anthracoporella spectabilis; dolostone-hosted talc bodies (steatite, with brucite, magnesite, willemseite and montmorillonite, plus pyrite and hematite) formed by Permian hydrothermal and dynamic (greenschist-facies) metamorphic alteration of the dolomite along faults and folds, linked to Pre-Himalayan tectonics (Majeed et al. 2025).

Fossils

Anthracoporella spectabilis (dasyclad alga, Late Carboniferous)

Contacts

In the Hazara Basin column

MetamorphicLimestoneFossils 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

Hazara Basin

Basin: Hazara Basin
Region: Lesser Himalaya
Depositional environment: marine, carbonate platform
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Other

A premium soapstone (talc/steatite) source — the dolostone-hosted talc bodies are actively mined in the Sherwan area of Abbottabad (e.g. the Khandakhu Mine). Trace chromium levels bear on the industrial grade of the soapstone (Majeed et al. 2025).

Remarks

A dolomite-hosted talc deposit whose paragenesis records Permian hydrothermal and dynamic (greenschist-facies) metamorphic transformation of Late Carboniferous dolomite along faults and folds during Pre-Himalayan tectonics; the study resolves a long-standing controversy over the age of the Sherwan Formation.

Sources (1)

Majeed, K.U., Mughal, M.S., Kontakiotis, G., Ali, S.K., Akhtar, S., Janjuhah, H.T., Siddique, K., Besiou, E. & Antonarakou, A. (2025). Petrography and geochemistry of Late Carboniferous dolostone-hosted soapstone in the Sherwan Formation, Hazara Basin. Frontiers in Earth Science, 13, 1585240.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_sherwanformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Sherwan 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/sherwan-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).