Mesozoic • Cretaceous formation GSP memoir

Shittinbar Formation

Cretaceous

Karakoram-Hindukush Basin · Southern Metamorphic Belt

Cited in 2 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · CretaceousCretaceous
Named by: Le Fort and Pechner (2001)
Type locality: Le Fort and Pechner
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Terrigenous alternation of sandstone and pelite.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A Cretaceous sandstone-and-pelite unit of the southern Karakoram metamorphic belt.

Named by Le Fort and Pêcher (2001) for an alternation of terrigenous sandstone and pelite in the Karakoram of upper Hunza–Chitral, the Shittinbar Formation is overlapped by the Darkot Group and the Chalt Formation.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Karakoram column

SandstoneLimestoneMixedMarlFossils 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

Karakoram

Basin: Karakoram-Hindukush Basin
Region: Southern Metamorphic Belt
Depositional environment: Not recorded
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A Cretaceous terrigenous unit of the southern metamorphic belt whose outcrop area is overlapped by the Darkot Group and the Chalt Formation.

Research notes (1)

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 (1)

Kazmi & Abbasi (2008): the Shittinbar Formation (Hunza-Nagar region, Karakoram Metamorphic Complex / Hushe area) is 'a rather monotonous terrigenous formation of dominant sandy and pelitic alternance' (Le Fort & Pecher 2001), mapped over ground also covered by the Darkot Group (Ivanac et al. 1956) and the Chait Formation (Desio 1964). The book gives NO age for it — so the curated 'Cretaceous' is not corroborated here; its Karakoram-metamorphic-complex context suggests an older (Palaeozoic–Mesozoic) unit, flagged for a better-constrained source. Age not changed.

Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008)

Sources (2)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
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.

Reviewer confidence: medium

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: Appears in a single-author Geological Survey of Pakistan memoir (Malkani & Mahmood 2017), not cross-confirmed against the Shah lexicon. The Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan is largely inactive, so documented provenance — not formal ratification — is the available signal.

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Cite this unit

APA

Qudsi, L. (2026). Shittinbar Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_shittinbarformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Shittinbar 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/shittinbar-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Le Fort and Pechner (2001).