Paleozoic • Carboniferous formation GSP memoir

Lowara Mena Formation

Late Devonian to Carboniferous

Northern Indus Suture

Cited in 2 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · CarboniferousLate Devonian to Carboniferous
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Not recorded
Thickness: Not recorded
Lithology: Slate, phyllite, quartzite and dolomitic limestone (inferred).
Synonyms: Not recorded

A Carboniferous slate-and-quartzite unit of the Nowshera/Peshawar area.

The Lowara Mena Formation (Khan et al. 1989) consists of slates, phyllites, quartzite and dolomitic limestone; its age is inferred as Carboniferous on the basis of superposition (Khan, M.A. 1970). It is a synonym of the Warran Ghundai Formation.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Khyber–Nowshera Belt column

LimestoneShale / mudMetamorphicFossils recordedUnconformityConformable

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type (wavy = unconformity inferred from a missing period). 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

Khyber–Nowshera Belt

Basin: Northern Indus Suture
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: marine
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

A Carboniferous slate-phyllite-quartzite-and-dolomitic-limestone unit of the Nowshera/Peshawar Paleozoic area.

Research notes (1)

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

Age & correlation (1)

Kazmi & Abbasi (2008): the Lowara Mena Formation (type Lowara Mena, Ghundai Sar area, Khyber Agency) is phyllites with interbedded limestones, slaty shales, graphitic/mica schists, crinoidal limestones and quartzite (crinoid columns, brachiopods), gradational over the underlying Ghundai Sar Formation; Late Devonian–Carboniferous (Khan et al. 1989) / Middle Devonian–Early Carboniferous (Khan A.B. et al. 1970). Refines the curated 'Carboniferous'. DUPLICATE FLAG: the book states the Lowara Mena Formation is the same unit as the 'Warren Ghundai Formation' of Khan M.A. (1970), with the senior name Lowara Mena taking precedence — so this record and 'warran-ghundai-formation' are likely synonyms to be merged.

Kazmi, A.H. & Abbasi, I.A. (2008)

Sources (2)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
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.

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: 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.

Spotted an error? Suggest a sourced correction →

Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_lowaramenaformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Lowara Mena 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/lowara-mena-formation (accessed October 7, 2026).