Chichali Formation
Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous
Jurassic-Cretaceous in the time scale →Cited in 13 sources Last reviewed Aug 20, 2026
- Rank
- Not recorded
- Status
- Published
- Age
- Mesozoic · Jurassic-Cretaceous · Tithonian-BerriasianLate Jurassic - Early Cretaceous
- Named by
- Danilchik (1961)
- Type locality
- Chichali Pass in Surghar33.0031°N, 71.4042°E
- Thickness
- 12-70 m
- Lithology
- Dark greenish grey glauconitic sandstone, glauconitic shale
- Synonyms
- Belemnite Beds; Spiti Shale
A greenish, glauconite-rich marine sandstone and shale marking the Jurassic-to-Cretaceous transition in the Upper Indus Basin.
Named after Chichali Pass in Surghar Range. Marks Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. Rich in belemnites. Correlated with Spiti Shale of Hazara. Part of the Chichali Group.
Fossils
Contacts
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
- Basin
- Not recorded
- Region
- Not recorded
- Depositional environment
- marine
- Coordinates
- 33.0031°N, 71.4042°E
See it in the field
Geoheritage site where this unit is exposed at outcrop.
Correlation
Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →
Economic significance
Phosphorite (rock phosphate) has been reported from the Chichali Formation near Kohat, but low phosphate content makes it of little economic value.
Remarks
A glauconitic marine sandstone-and-shale unit straddling the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary in the Kohat–Potwar region; its glauconite and condensed character record slow marine sedimentation, and it underlies the Cretaceous Lumshiwal Formation.
Sources (14)
- 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.
- Microfacies and biostratigraphy of the Chichali, Lumshiwal and Kawagarh formations, Upper Indus and Hazara basins, Pakistan (2024).
- OpenStreetMap contributors and GEOnet Names Server (public geographic gazetteers), used to geolocate named GSP type localities to approximate decimal coordinates.
- Indian Plate Lexicon (indplex.geolex.org), Geological Society of India and international compilation.
- Malkani, M.S. (2019). Cretaceous Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Open Journal of Geology, 9, 671-673.
- Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
- 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.
- Asim, S., Qureshi, S.N., Asif, S.K., Abbasi, S.A., Solangi, S. & Mirza, M.Q. (2014). Structural and Stratigraphical Correlation of Seismic Profiles between Drigri Anticline and Bahawalpur High in Central Indus Basin of Pakistan. International Journal of Geosciences, 5(11), 1231-1240.
- Umar, M., Kassi, A.M., Jamil, M., Kasi, A.K. & Khan, A.S. (2024). Cretaceous stratigraphic framework and sedimentary architecture, Pakistan: signatures of rift-drift tectonics and submarine volcanism along the western continental margin of the Indian Plate. In: Hart, M.B. et al. (eds) Cretaceous Project 200 Volume 2: Regional Studies. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 545.
- 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).
- Butt, A.A. (1989). An Overview of the Hazara Arc Stratigraphy, Northern Pakistan. Geological Bulletin of the Punjab University, 24, 1-11.
- Ahmed, S., Mertmann, D. & Manutsoglu, E. (1997). Jurassic shelf sedimentation and sequence stratigraphy of the Surghar Range, Pakistan. Journal of Nepal Geological Society, 15, 15-22.
- Craig, J., Hakhoo, N., Bhat, G.M., Hafiz, M., Khan, M.R., Misra, R., Pandita, S.K., Raina, B.K., Thurow, J., Thusu, B., Ahmed, W. & Khullar, S. (2018). Petroleum systems and hydrocarbon potential of the North-West Himalaya of India and Pakistan. Earth-Science Reviews, 187, 109-185.
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
Qudsi, L. (2026). Chichali Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991
@misc{stratigraphypk_chichaliformation,
author = {Qudsi, Lareb},
title = {{Chichali 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/chichali-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).
To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Danilchik (1961).
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