Source provenance

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).

Cited by 13 units (13 published) · 8 field-level citations · 20 revision notes.

USGS-GSP cooperative regional mapping (1961-65) of the Hazara district and part of western Kashmir. Full lithostratigraphy, contacts, thicknesses, ages and naming history for the Salkhala, Hazara, Tanawal, Kingriali, Panjal, Datta, Samana Suk, Chichali, Lumshiwal and Kawagarh units, the Kala Chitta Group, Murree Formation and Mansehra Granite. Note: assigns the Tanawal Fm an Ordovician(?)-Devonian(?) age and the Mansehra Granite a Late Cretaceous (~80 Ma K-Ar, Davies) age — the latter is superseded by modern Cambro-Ordovician (~470 Ma) geochronology. In Hazara the Kingriali dolomite was earlier called Below the Trias / Infra Trias / Abbottabad Formation.

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Units citing this source

• Paleozoic Abbottabad Formation Cambrian
  • Introduced by: Calkins et al. (1975, USGS Professional Paper 716-C): the name 'Abbottabad Formation' was proposed by Marks & Ali (1962) for the regionally extensive dolomite sequence of the Hazara area and adopted by the Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan.
• Mesozoic Chichali Formation Jurassic-Cretaceous
  Synonyms
  • Age: Calkins et al. (1975): in Hazara the Chichali Formation is a soft, thinly laminated, highly organic black shale (Spiti-Shale facies), a few feet to ~300 ft thick with sheared contacts, and is Late Jurassic here (Perisphinctes frequens, Belemnopsis canaliculatus, ammonites near Abbottabad) — younging westward to Early Cretaceous. Formerly the 'Belemnite Beds' (Oldham 1892); the name 'Spiti Shale' was dropped by the Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan and these outcrops assigned to the Chichali Formation.
• Mesozoic Datta Formation Jurassic
  • Economic importance: Calkins et al. (1975): in the Kakul–Galdanian–Chure Gali belt northeast of Abbottabad the middle unit of the Datta Formation carries low-grade sedimentary iron ore — red hematitic claystone/siltstone with layers and lenses of black massive hematite and manganese-oxide (some Mn lenses up to ~1,200 ft long), with oolitic, pelletal and nodular fabrics; it was mapped in detail for economic appraisal.
  • Thickness: Calkins et al. (1975): in Hazara the Datta Formation is a thin but persistent red/brown shale and quartzose-sandstone sequence (upper sandstone, middle shale/iron unit, lower sandstone), ~90–160 ft in the Galdanian and Chure Gali areas but exceeding 500 ft westward near the Panjal fault; disconformable on the Kingriali Formation and below the Samana Suk Limestone. Early Jurassic (ammonites; Fatmi).
• Precambrian Hazara Formation Neoproterozoic
  • Synonyms: Calkins et al. (1975): earlier names for this slate–phyllite–graywacke sequence are 'Attock Slates' (Waagen & Wynne 1872), 'Slate Series of Hazara' (Middlemiss 1896) and 'Hazara Slate Formation' (Marks & Ali 1961) — the curated 'Salt Series of Hazara' appears to be a slip for Middlemiss's 'Slate Series of Hazara'. It is equated with the Dogra Slates of Poonch (Kashmir), the Attock Slates and the Simla Slate Series of India.
  • Lithology: Calkins et al. (1975): mainly dark-grey to black slate, phyllite and unmetamorphosed shale with subordinate graywacke sandstone; two zones between Muzaffarabad and Kohala carry limestone beds totalling up to ~500 ft (150 m) and a calcareous-phyllite-with-gypsum sequence 100–400 ft (30–120 m) thick, integral to the formation. The presence of limestone, graphite and gypsum argues against the earlier turbidite/flysch interpretation, favouring a shallow-water argillaceous origin. No fossils have been found; correlation with the fossiliferous-Cambrian-overlain Dogra Slates suggests a Precambrian age possibly extending into the Cambrian–Ordovician.
  • Age: Calkins et al. (1975, USGS PP 716-C): the Hazara Formation is Precambrian(?) and possibly lower Palaeozoic — essentially unaltered shale, siltstone and limestone in the southern part of the area — overlying the Precambrian Salkhala Formation; its unmetamorphosed state there argues against a Precambrian-Palaeozoic metamorphic event.
• Mesozoic Kawagarh Formation Cretaceous
  • Fossils: Calkins et al. (1975, after Latif 1962): in Hazara the Kawagarh Limestone is a light-grey, fine, nearly lithographic limestone ~350 ft thick, resting conformably on the Lumshiwal Sandstone and disconformably beneath the Kala Chitta Group (a lateritic contact). It carries Late Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera — Globotruncana (visible in hand specimen), Heterohelix, Rugoglobigerina and Pseudotextularia — and is correlated with the Chikkim Limestone (Spiti), the Parh Limestone (Balochistan) and the Darsamand Limestone (Kohat).
• Mesozoic Kingriali Formation Triassic
  • Synonyms: Calkins et al. (1975): in the Hazara area this cherty dolomite sequence was earlier called 'Below the Trias' (Waagen & Wynne 1872), 'Infra Trias' (Middlemiss 1896) and — for the Sirban Hill outcrops east of Abbottabad — the 'Abbottabad Formation' (Marks & Ali 1962), before the Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan adopted the name Kingriali Formation (Gee's 1945 'Kingriali dolomites' of the Kingriali Hills). NOTE: this historical usage predates the modern separation of the Cambrian Abbottabad Formation as a distinct unit — the two should not be conflated.
  • Thickness: Calkins et al. (1975): the Kingriali Formation is ~2,000 ft (610 m) at its Hazara type section on Sirban Hill (Marks & Ali 1961), 2,700 ft in the Tanal area, 2,500 ft NE of Muzaffarabad and only 300–400 ft along the east flank of the Garhi Habibullah syncline — dolomite, quartzite and basal conglomerate/phyllite with abrupt facies changes. Assigned a Carboniferous–Triassic age (it overlies the Tanawal and underlies the Early Jurassic Datta Formation; conodonts west of the Indus are no younger than Late Devonian — Teichert).
• Mesozoic Lumshiwal Formation Cretaceous
  • Fossils: Calkins et al. (1975): in Hazara the Lumshiwal Sandstone is a 10–50 ft, soft, very calcareous glauconitic quartz sandstone (weathering brownish-orange) with a belemnite-rich 3–5 ft basal interval, grading up (4-ft transition) into the Kawagarh Limestone. Ammonites give a Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age — Virgatosphinctoides and Aulacosphinctoides (Late Jurassic) and Brancoceras, Subthurmannia and Lyelliceras (Early Cretaceous); the Indian equivalent is the Giumal Sandstone.
• Paleozoic Mansehra Granite Ordovician
  Introduced bySynonyms
  • Age: Calkins et al. (1975): originally assigned the Mansehra Granite a Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary age (~80 Ma K-Ar, R.G. Davies) and interpreted it as synorogenic with the early Himalayan orogeny. This is SUPERSEDED by modern geochronology, which places the Mansehra Granite in the Cambrian–Ordovician (~470 Ma) Himalayan granite belt; the curated Ordovician age is retained and the Calkins assignment recorded only as a historical note.
  • Lithology: Calkins et al. (1975, after Shams 1961): a light-coloured, medium- to coarse-grained, foliated (except around Mansehra) granite characterised by large twinned microcline phenocrysts (locally up to 5 in), with microcline–oligoclase–quartz and minor biotite/muscovite; a tourmaline-rich variety (the 'Hakale granite') and a foliated 'Susal Gali granite gneiss' are genetically related. Gravity and field data indicate a sheet-like body folded with its Tanawal Formation country rock; contact aureoles are weak (local cordierite schist).
• Cenozoic Murree Formation Neogene
  Synonyms
  • Age: Calkins et al. (1975): in the axial zone of the Hazara–Kashmir syntaxis the Murree Formation is a thick (≈5,000 to >8,000 ft) red siltstone–shale–mudstone sequence with subordinate cross-bedded graywacke and calcareous mud-pebble conglomerate. Its angular, chert- and feldspar-rich sand indicates short transport from the rising Himalaya to the north (not the Indian Peninsula). Generally early–middle Miocene (leaf impressions; Pilgrim 1910), but the gradational contact with the underlying Eocene Kala Chitta Group implies its base may be Oligocene; it is overlain conformably by the Siwaliks. Earlier names: 'Mari Group' (Wynne 1874), 'Murree Beds' (Lydekker 1876), 'Murree Series' (Pilgrim 1910).
• Paleozoic Panjal Formation Carboniferous–Permian
  Synonyms
  • Lithology: Calkins et al. (1975): the Panjal Formation wraps around the apex of the Hazara–Kashmir syntaxis as two mapped units — a lower 'Agglomeratic Slate' (black carbonaceous slate, glassy quartzose agglomeratic sandstone with volcanic, quartz, slate and dolomite fragments, minor tuff) and an extensive volcanic greenstone of metamorphosed intermediate-to-mafic lava flows and tuffs (chlorite–epidote–feldspar, amygdaloidal, locally amphibolite in the Manda Kuchha syncline). Wadia's (1931) ~9,000 ft (2,700 m) estimate at Paras is probably exaggerated by folding and faulting. Age Carboniferous–Permian (late-Carboniferous–Permian fauna in western Kashmir) ranging to Triassic in eastern Kashmir.
• Precambrian Salkhala Formation Neoproterozoic
  Introduced bySynonyms
  • Lithology: Calkins et al. (1975): in the Hazara region the Salkhala Formation — the oldest known rocks — consists largely of quartz (mica-chlorite) schist, fine-grained thin-bedded marble (locally graphitic or tremolitic), sooty graphite schist and augen-bearing quartzo-feldspathic gneiss; it crops out around the apex of the Hazara–Kashmir syntaxis and along the Indus from Tarbela to Kandar. Named after Salkhala village on the Kishanganga (Neelum) River; at the type locality it is overlain by the Dogra Slates (equated with the Hazara Formation) and closely resembles the Jutogh Series of Simla.
• Mesozoic Samana Suk Formation Jurassic
  • Fossils: Calkins et al. (1975): in Hazara the Samana Suk Limestone is a black to dark-grey, thick-bedded, commonly cross-bedded, pelletal-to-oolitic biogenic limestone at least ~1,100 ft (335 m) thick (Fatmi, 2 mi N of Kalapani), disconformable on the Datta Formation and sheared against the overlying Chichali shale. Dasycladacean algae close to Neogyroporella indicate a Late Jurassic to earliest (pre-Aptian) Cretaceous age; correlatives include the Sulaiman Limestone Group, the Takatu Limestone and the Chiltan Limestone.
• Precambrian Tanawal Formation Neoproterozoic
  Synonyms
  • Age: 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.
  • Lithology: 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).
  • Age: 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.