Paleozoic • Cambrian formation In GSP lexicon

Ambar Formation

Cambrian

Northern Indus Suture

Cited in 7 sources Last reviewed Aug 10, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · CambrianCambrian
Named by: Pogue and Hussain (1986)
Type locality: Ambar village, Swabi-Jehangira road (Nowshera-Swabi area)
Thickness: more than 425 m
Lithology: Brownish-grey dolomite with chert lenses and shale layers; the upper part is more massive with stromatolitic laminations.
Synonyms: Amber Formation; Amber dolomite

A Cambrian dolomite — the oldest Paleozoic unit near Nowshera — matched with the Abbottabad Formation.

The Ambar Formation is named after Ambar village along the Swabi–Jehangira road by Pogue and Hussain (1986) for dolomite, dolomitic limestone, quartzite and argillite.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Khyber–Nowshera Belt column

MetamorphicLimestoneFossils recordedConformable

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

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

The oldest unit of the Nowshera Paleozoic complex (the 'Amber dolomite'), correlated on lithology with the Cambrian Abbottabad Formation of Hazara; it is overlain unconformably by the Ordovician Misri Banda Quartzite (dataset Jobra Formation).

Sources (7)

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.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
Room, S.A., Kashif, M., Ullah, H., Rehman, A.U., Ahmad, W. & Akhtar, S. (2023). Characterization of Dolomite in Ambar Formation (Cambrian), Peshawar Basin, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Petroleum and Coal, 65(3), 875-885.
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.
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.
Hussain, A., DiPietro, J.A. & Pogue, K.R. (1998). Stratigraphy and structure of the Peshawar basin, Pakistan. Journal of Nepal Geological Society, 18, 25-35.

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: 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.

Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_ambarformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Ambar 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/ambar-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Pogue and Hussain (1986).

Above · younger

Jobra Formation

Ordovician

Referenced in other successions

Overlain by Misri Banda Quartzite