Mesozoic • Cretaceous Literature

Jijal Complex

Cretaceous

Cited in 4 sources Last reviewed Aug 20, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Cretaceous · Early–mid CretaceousCretaceous
Named by: Characterised by Coward et al. (1984); high-pressure petrology by Jan & Howie (1981)
Type locality: Between Patan and Jijal, Indus valley, Kohistan (~200 km²).
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Garnet-clinopyroxene-plagioclase granulites with relics of norite, passing southward through increasing clinopyroxene and hornblendites into a main ultramafic body of clinopyroxenites and dunites with lenses of layered chromitite up to 5 m thick.
Synonyms: Not recorded

The deep root of the Kohistan volcanic arc — garnet granulites and layered ultramafic rocks squeezed up along the Main Mantle Thrust — representing the high-pressure equivalent of the Chilas Complex.

The Jijal Complex is a roughly 200 km² tectonic wedge of high-pressure mafic granulites and chromite-layered ultramafics forming the deepest exposed level of the Kohistan island-arc, between Patan and Jijal in the Indus valley against the Main Mantle Thrust (southern suture). As described by Coward et al. (1984), its garnet-granulites (with norite relics) are the high-pressure metamorphic equivalents of the Chilas Complex, so the Jijal Complex is probably a tectonic fragment of the base of the Chilas Complex that was subducted or downthrust to great depth against the MMT.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Kohistan Arc column

IgneousMixedShale / mudConformable

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type. 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

Kohistan Arc

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: magmatic arc (lower crust to uppermost mantle)
Coordinates: Not recorded

See it in the field

Geoheritage site where this unit is exposed at outcrop.

Main Mantle Thrust & Jijal Complex

Kohistan Arc

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

The high-pressure (arc-root) equivalent of the Chilas Complex and the structurally lowest unit of the Kohistan sequence against the MMT. Jan & Howie (1981), cited by Coward et al. (1984), found the granulites equilibrated at 690–770 °C and 12–14 kbar and the associated dunites at 800–850 °C and 8–11 kbar, recording metamorphism/crystallisation at lower-crustal to uppermost-mantle depths of the island arc.

Research notes (3)

Field-by-field findings drawn from the cited literature. Every statement is traced to a registered source — follow a citation for the full reference.

Lithology (2)

The Jijal complex comprises basal peridotite (dunite-wehrlite-pyroxenite) overlain by a gabbroic section of mafic garnet granulite with minor garnet hornblendite — the exhumed lower-crustal root of the Kohistan paleo-island arc, recording intra-crustal differentiation (Garrido et al. 2006).

Garrido, C.J., Bodinier, J.-L., Burg, J.-P., Zeilinger, G., Hussain, S.S., Dawood, H., Chaudhry, M.N. & Gervilla, F. (2006)
Jan & Howie (1981): the Jijal Complex is a tectonic wedge of garnet granulites in the north intruded to the south by a ~10x4 km ultramafic slab (diopsidites with subordinate dunites, peridotites and harzburgites; olivine Fo92-89). The granulites divide into plagioclase-bearing (basic-intermediate) and plagioclase-free (ultrabasic-basic) types, with garnetites, hornblende-rocks and garnet pyroxenites. The foundational mineralogical/geochemical description of the complex.

Jan, M.Q. & Howie, R.A. (1981)

Geological significance (1)

Yamamoto & Yoshino (1998): geothermobarometry of the Jijal mafic granulites yields 10.2 kbar/735C to 17.0 kbar/949C, recording high-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism of the deep Kohistan arc crust during intra-oceanic subduction and the subsequent Kohistan-Asia collision, followed by local post-collision amphibolitization — confirming Jijal as an exposed arc-root section.

Yamamoto, H. & Yoshino, T. (1998)

Sources (1)

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.

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: Defined in journal or other literature; not found in a GSP memoir. There is no body currently ratifying unit status, so provenance is shown in place of a formal ruling.

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Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_jijalcomplex,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Jijal Complex} --- 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/jijal-complex (accessed October 7, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Characterised by Coward et al. (1984); high-pressure petrology by Jan & Howie (1981).