Source provenance

Coward, M.P., Jan, M.Q., Rex, D., Tarney, J., Thirlwall, M. & Windley, B.F. (1984). Geology of the South Central Karakoram and Kohistan. In: Miller, K.J. (ed.), The International Karakoram Project, Vol. 2, 71-84. Cambridge University Press.

Cited by 9 units (9 published) · 9 field-level citations · 9 revision notes.

Structural and lithological transect of the Karakoram-Kohistan-Indian plate along the Karakoram Highway between Khunjerab and Abbottabad, across the northern (MKT) and southern (MMT) branches of the Indus suture. Describes the Northern Karakoram sedimentary zone (Tahirkheli 1979 framework: Misgar Slates, Kilik, Gircha, Pasu Slates, Gujhal Formation, Shanoz Conglomerate), the Karakoram batholith, and the Kohistan arc sequence (Chalt Group volcanics, tonalite-diorite plutonic belt, the Chilas cumulate complex, the amphibolite belt and the Jijal granulite-ultramafic complex), plus the Indian-plate basement, Cambrian Mansehra granite and Murree molasse.

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Units citing this source

• Mesozoic Chalt Volcanic Group Cretaceous
  • Lithology: Coward et al. (1984): the Chalt Group forms the northern crust of the Kohistan arc, south of the northern suture - metagreywackes and slates, epidotic grits and tuffs, hornblende-bearing tuffs, chlorite schists, schistose amphibolites, amygdaloidal pillow-bearing basalts and fragmental basic volcanics, several kilometres thick (partly by fold/thrust repetition), folded by large upright tight-to-isoclinal folds and cut by thin granitic dykes and muscovite pegmatites.
• Mesozoic Chilas Complex Cretaceous
  • Lithology: Coward et al. (1984): the Chilas Complex is a vast stratiform cumulate body over 300 km long and up to 8 km thick, with an upward sequence of hypersthene gabbro, major chromite-layered dunite, norite, gabbro, minor troctolite/harzburgite/dunite and norite at the top; rhythmically phase-graded cumulate layers up to 10 cm thick, slump folds, syn-sedimentation faults and sedimentary breccias occur, with near-pure anorthosite layers and 3 m compact chromitite seams in the basal dunites.
  • Geological significance: Coward et al. (1984): the Chilas Complex is folded by an F2 isoclinal anticline and interpreted as the lowermost crustal unit of the Kohistan arc sequence - a granulite-grade layered complex forming the base of the crustal section, compared to the Ivrea Zone of the Italian Alps; its intact cumulate stratigraphy would have blocked the passage of the arc's granitic magmas, implying it was one of the latest pre-first-deformation intrusions.
• Paleozoic Gircha Formation Permian
  • Geological significance: Coward et al. (1984), following the Tahirkheli (1979) framework, described the Gircha Formation near Khaiber as ~4,000 m thick, its upper part argillaceous with thin calcareous intercalations and its lower part sandstone with calcareous-arenaceous shales, carrying Lower Permian brachiopods, corals and bryozoans. (This early bulk thickness far exceeds the member-scale figures of the later Gaetani et al. 1995 formalization.)
• Mesozoic Guhjal Dolomite Triassic
  • Lithology: Coward et al. (1984) (naming it the 'Gujhal Formation', after Tahirkheli 1979): a ~500 m mass of dolomite, dolomitic limestone and limestone with thin bands of siliceous schist and two conglomerate horizons (one at the base and one in the middle part), exposed in the Batura and Pasu areas, and assigned a Permo-Triassic age - a third independent characterisation consistent with the curated Late Permian-Late Triassic platform dolomite. It has a tectonic contact with the underlying Pasu Slates and the Karakoram batholith.
• Mesozoic Jaglot Group Jurassic–Cretaceous
  • Geological significance: Coward et al. (1984): the volcanics at Chalt and the sediments near Gilgit are folded around a major westward-facing Jaglot syncline - a second-phase structure with a half-wavelength well over 50 km that, with its parasitic folds, affects the rocks from Gilgit to Jijal and is one of the largest crustal-scale tight synclines known; metamorphic grade in the Kohistan sequence ranges from greenschist facies in the core of the Jaglot syncline to high-pressure granulite facies in the Jijal Complex against the MMT.
• Mesozoic Jijal Complex Cretaceous
  AgeEraPeriodLithologyType localityUpper contact (underlies)Introduced byGeological significancePlain summary
• Mesozoic Kamila Amphibolite Belt Cretaceous
  • Lithology: Coward et al. (1984): the amphibolite belt (between the Chilas and Jijal complexes) contains banded amphibolites with or without garnet, hornblendites, hornblende schists, garnet and anorthositic gabbros, anorthosites, diorites, tonalites and granites, and thin garnet-quartzite and calc-silicate lenses; the proportion of true amphibolite is commonly low, and most intrusive rocks are concordant, parallel to the regional trend and intensely deformed, the coarser leucocratic types becoming augen gneisses.
• Precambrian Misgar Slate Neoproterozoic-Cambrian
  • Lithology: Coward et al. (1984) (after Tahirkheli 1979): the Misgar Slates of the northernmost Hunza Valley are a ~3,500 m monotonous sequence of slates and phyllitic slates with thin carbonaceous and quartzitic bands, intruded by an early phase of gabbros and diorites and a later, more abundant phase of quartz porphyry, granite, aplite and pegmatite - the siliceous intrusions forming a linear belt along the Pakistan-China border in the Khunjerab area - and are assigned a Palaeozoic age.
• Cenozoic Shanoz Conglomerate Paleogene
  • Age: Coward et al. (1984): the Shanoz Conglomerate, occurring between Pasu and Khaiber, consists of calcareous fragments in a siliceous matrix and is considered the lower-Cretaceous equivalent of the Reshun Conglomerate of the Chitral area. (Tahirkheli et al. 1990 instead correlate the Reshun Conglomerate to the Late Cretaceous-Early Palaeocene; the two give somewhat different ages for the same correlative.)