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Pakistan Stratigraphy
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Mesozoic • Cretaceous

Chilas Complex

Cretaceous (102-85 Ma)

Cretaceous in the time scale →

Stratigraphic position

In the Kohistan Arc column
Shale / mudMetamorphicIgneousConformable

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.

The Chilas Complex — a giant layered gabbro body that was the mid-crustal magma chamber of the Kohistan arc.

Largest mafic-ultramafic plutonic body in Kohistan arc. Represents deep-level arc crust. Contains platinum group elements.

Significance. The Chilas Complex — a huge mafic–ultramafic layered intrusion forming the mid-crustal level of the Kohistan arc, interpreted as a sub-arc magma-chamber complex; one of the world's classic exposures of arc mid-crust.

Lithology
Large mafic–ultramafic body — gabbronorite with serpentinized ultramafic rocks (dunite, harzburgite, pyroxenite), dolerite and gabbro; associated with the Babusar Pass mélange.
Thickness
8-10 km thick
Type locality
Chilas, Gilgit-Baltistan
Environment
volcanic-arc, plutonic
Introduced by
Jan et al.
Economic importance
Platinum group element potential

Provinces

References

  • 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.

Reviewer confidence: medium

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