Precambrian • Neoproterozoic In GSP lexicon

Tanawal Formation

Late Proterozoic

Cited in 13 sources Last reviewed Aug 20, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Precambrian · NeoproterozoicLate Proterozoic
Named by: Wynne (1879)
Type locality: Tanawal village, north of Tarbela34.4200°N, 72.9700°E
Thickness: 1000-2000 m
Lithology: Metaquartzite, metapsammite and garnet-mica schist (quartzite and schist).
Synonyms: Tanol Group; Tanol Quartzites; Tanol Formation

A Late Proterozoic quartzite-and-schist unit of the Hazara hills, between the Hazara and Abbottabad formations and cut by the Mansehra Granite.

Named after Tanawal (Tanol) village. Thick quartzite sequence intruded by Cambrian Mansehra Granite. Forms prominent ridges in Hazara region.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Hazara Basin column

Shale / mudMetamorphicConglomerateLimestoneFossils recordedUnconformityContact not recorded

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type (wavy = unconformity inferred from a missing period); 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: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: marine
Coordinates: 34.4200°N, 72.9700°E

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See it in the field

Geoheritage site where this unit is exposed at outcrop.

Tanaki Boulder Bed — Marinoan glaciation

Hazara Basin

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

The metaquartzite-and-schist unit that makes up much of the Hazara Nappe; it unconformably overlies the Precambrian Hazara Formation, is overlain unconformably by the Cambrian Abbottabad Formation, and is intruded by the Late Cambrian Mansehra Granite, which places it in the Late Proterozoic.

Research notes (14)

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 (2)

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)
Calkins (1967): the Tanawal Formation — originally Wynne's (1879) 'Tanol Group', named from the former Tanol (Tanawal) tribal area north of Haripur — is the quartzose-schist sequence overlying the Hazara Formation west of Abbottabad; Calkins assigned it a Silurian-Devonian age.

Calkins, J.A. (1967)

Age & correlation (6)

Baseline age 'Cambrian' is questionable: Kazmi & Jan (1997), following Williams (1989) and Treloar et al. (1989a), place the Tanawal Formation in the Late Proterozoic, since it is intruded by the Late Cambrian Mansehra Granite and so must predate it. Age needs review.

Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997)
Kazmi & Jan (1997): the Precambrian Tanawal Formation is placed in the Late Proterozoic (Williams 1989; Treloar et al. 1989a) — metaquartzites, metapsammites and garnet-mica schists of the Hazara Nappe that unconformably overlie the Hazara Formation, are overlain unconformably by the Cambrian Abbottabad Formation (Tanakki Conglomerate at the base), and are intruded by the Late Cambrian two-mica Mansehra Granite (516 Ma Rb–Sr isochron; Le Fort et al. 1980). Treloar et al. (1991b) correlate the Shingus Gneiss with this Tanawal Formation–Mansehra Granite sequence.

Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997)
Calkins et al. (1975): in Hazara the Tanawal Formation is bracketed only as younger than the Hazara Formation and older than the Kingriali Formation, and is assigned an Ordovician(?)–Devonian(?) age, tentatively correlated with the Muth Quartzite (now regarded as Late Ordovician–Early Silurian). This differs from the curated Neoproterozoic assignment; the curated era/period are retained and the Calkins age recorded as an alternative.

Calkins, J.A., Offield, T.W., Abdullah, S.K.M. & Ali, S.T. (1975)
Pogue, Harris & Hussain (1992): the Tanawal Formation is Cambrian or older - it is intruded by the Mansehra Granite (Rb/Sr whole-rock 516 +/- 16 Ma; Le Fort et al. 1980). About 3,000 m of interbedded quartzite and argillite with rare limestone lenses (cross-bedded quartzite, ripple-marked interfaces); it unconformably overlies graphitic phyllite/marble correlated with the Salkhala Formation and is overlain by the Ambar Formation (or, north of Swabi, directly by the Misri Banda Quartzite). Its high-grade counterpart in Swat is the Manglaur Formation.

Pogue, K.R., Harris, A.G. & Hussain, A. (1992)
Calkins et al. (1975, USGS PP 716-C): the Tanawal Formation is a mainly clastic (quartzite and schist) early-to-middle Palaeozoic unit assigned an Upper Ordovician(?) to Devonian(?) age; in the high-grade metamorphic terrane its schists are considered equivalent to the Tanawal Formation.

Calkins, J.A., Offield, T.W., Abdullah, S.K.M. & Ali, S.T. (1975)
DiPietro & Pogue (2004): the Tanawal Formation is an Upper Proterozoic-to-Cambrian quartzite, quartz-schist, argillite and garnetiferous schist that unconformably overlies the Gandaf Formation and is correlated with the Haimanta Group of the Lesser Himalaya; it is intimately associated with abundant ~500 Ma (Cambro-Ordovician) augen orthogneiss (the Mansehra granite). Places the unit in the tectonostratigraphy of the NW Indian plate.

DiPietro, J.A. & Pogue, K.R. (2004)

Lithology (3)

Calkins et al. (1975): mainly quartzose schist, quartzite and lenses of quartzose conglomerate (four units near Tarbela: conglomerate, lower quartzite, quartz schist, upper quartzite), grading northward into garnet-, andalusite-, staurolite- and locally sillimanite-bearing schists within and north of the Mansehra Granite. Ubiquitous accessory tourmaline and minor feldspar indicate derivation from a granitic Precambrian source terrane (Indian shield). About 5,000 ft (~1,500 m) thick north of Haripur (Ali 1962).

Calkins, J.A., Offield, T.W., Abdullah, S.K.M. & Ali, S.T. (1975)
Pogue et al. (1999): the Tanawal Formation is a metaclastic unit with a protolith of feldspathic sandstone, siltstone and shale; lithologies range from quartzite and argillite near Tarbela dam to schistose quartzite and quartz-mica schist near Mansehra (increasing metamorphic grade). The Sobrah Formation (arenaceous/dolomitic marble and quartzite) lies between the Manki and Tanawal formations on the NW Gandghar Range.

Pogue, K.R., Hylland, M.D., Yeats, R.S., Khattak, W.U. & Hussain, A. (1999)
In the Kaghan Valley (Bhunja–Batakundi) the Tanol (Tanawal) Formation is represented by the Jared quartzites and quartz-mica schists — a light-brownish-grey arenaceous/psammitic sequence with dolerite sills, at biotite metamorphic grade (Ghazanfar & Chaudhry, 1985).

Ghazanfar, M. & Chaudhry, M.N. (1985)

Depositional environment (1)

Umar et al. (2015): the Tanawal Formation (sandstone/quartzite and shale) records shallow-marine deposition from deeper-shelf to shoreface - maroon shale and bioturbated/laminated sandstone at the base passing up into hummocky, large-scale planar and trough cross-stratified shoreface sandstones in an overall upward-coarsening (shoaling) succession; facies pass laterally from proximal shoreface (south-southeast) to distal deeper shelf (north-northwest). It is interpreted as a passive-margin deposit.

Umar, M., Betts, P., Khan, M.M.S., Sabir, M.A., Farooq, M., Zeb, A., Jadoon, U.K. & Ali, S. (2015)

Geological significance (2)

Chaudhry et al. (1989): in the Kaghan Valley the Tanawal (Tanol) Formation (psammitic-pelitic schists and quartzites) underlies the Agglomeratic Slate (Chushal Formation); their contact is often faulted but is locally gradational (Middlemiss 1911, Wadia 1931).

Chaudhry, M.N., Ghazanfar, M. & Hussain, M.S. (1989)
Umar et al. (2015): the Tanawal Formation overlies the Hazara Formation across an unconformity marked by a ~15 m conglomerate of Hazara-derived clasts (episodic uplift and erosion in the latest Neoproterozoic). It reaches up to ~900 m in the west but thins eastward to a condensed section of maroon shale, siltstone and thin sandstone (reinterpreted here as sediment-starvation by local subsidence, not the ~80 Myr erosional gap of earlier workers). Correlated with the Nagthat Formation (India) and the Wuqiangxi / Gong Dong formations (South China).

Umar, M., Betts, P., Khan, M.M.S., Sabir, M.A., Farooq, M., Zeb, A., Jadoon, U.K. & Ali, S. (2015)

Sources (11)

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.
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. & 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.
Calkins, J.A., Offield, T.W., Abdullah, S.K.M. & Ali, S.T. (1975). Geology of the southern Himalaya in Hazara, Pakistan, and adjacent areas. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 716-C, 29 p. (Geological Investigations in Pakistan).
Pogue, K.R., Hylland, M.D., Yeats, R.S., Khattak, W.U. & Hussain, A. (1999). Stratigraphic and structural framework of Himalayan foothills, northern Pakistan. In: Macfarlane, A., Sorkhabi, R.B. & Quade, J. (eds) Himalaya and Tibet: Mountain Roots to Mountain Tops. Geological Society of America Special Paper 328, 257-274.
Chaudhry, M.N., Ghazanfar, M. & Hussain, M.S. (1989). Petrography, Metamorphism, Nature and Origin of Agglomeratic Slate in Kaghan Valley, District Mansehra, Pakistan. Geological Bulletin of the Punjab University, 24, 61-70.
Pogue, K.R., Harris, A.G. & Hussain, A. (1992). Paleozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy of the Peshawar basin, Pakistan: Correlations and implications. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 104(8), 915-927.
Umar, M., Betts, P., Khan, M.M.S., Sabir, M.A., Farooq, M., Zeb, A., Jadoon, U.K. & Ali, S. (2015). Signatures of Late Neoproterozoic Gondwana assembly and Marinoan glaciation in Lesser Himalaya: a palaeogeographical and stratigraphical approach. Acta Geologica Polonica, 65(1), 1-19.
Calkins, J.A. (1967). The Geology of the Western Limb of the Hazara-Kashmir Syntaxis, West Pakistan and Kashmir. U.S. Geological Survey, open-file report.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_tanawalformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Tanawal 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/tanawal-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Wynne (1879).

Below · older

Hazara Formation

Neoproterozoic

Above · younger

Abbottabad Formation

Cambrian

Referenced in other successions

Overlain by Landai Formation· Tanaki Boulder Bed