Mesozoic • Jurassic group GSP memoir

Sulaiman Group

Jurassic

Sulaiman Basin

Cited in 3 sources Last reviewed Jul 15, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: group
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Jurassic · Early–Late Jurassic (to earliest Cretaceous)Jurassic
Named by: Pinfold (1939)
Type locality: Alozai is located in Western Indus Suture31.4333°N, 70.0167°E
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Crystalline and oolitic shelf limestone (Shirinab members and Chiltan) with an overlying ironstone (Dilband).
Synonyms: Not recorded

The Jurassic Sulaiman Group — the Shirinab members (Spingwar, Loralai, Anjira), the thick Chiltan Limestone and the Dilband ironstone.

The Sulaiman Group (Pinfold, 1939, as 'Sulaiman limestone'; formally described by Williams, 1959; extended by Malkani, 2010) comprises the Jurassic Spingwar, Loralai, Takatu/Chiltan and Dilband formations, with its type section in the gorge between Mughal Kot and Dhana Sar. These are dominantly pericratonic marine-shelf carbonates sloping westward from the Indo-Pakistan margin, with igneous rocks near the Western Indus Suture.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Sulaiman Fold Belt column

LimestoneFossils 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.

Constituent units

Formations that make up this group, in stratigraphic order (youngest at top, as in the column).

Distribution & setting

Sulaiman Fold Belt

Basin: Sulaiman Basin
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: shallow marine, carbonate platform
Coordinates: 31.4333°N, 70.0167°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Reservoir Metals & minerals

The Chiltan Limestone is a gas reservoir; the Dilband Formation hosts Pakistan's largest iron-ore deposit.

Remarks

The Jurassic carbonate succession of the Sulaiman/Kirthar region, comprising the Spingwar, Loralai and Anjira members (Shirinab Formation) and the thick Chiltan Limestone, with the overlying Early Cretaceous Dilband ironstone; the principal Jurassic platform carbonate and a deep gas reservoir.

Sources (2)

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.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_sulaimangroup,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Sulaiman Group} --- 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/sulaiman-group (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Pinfold (1939).