Mesozoic • Jurassic formation GSP memoir

Dark Limestone

Jurassic

Karakoram-Hindukush Basin · Central Karakoram Batholith

Cited in 2 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Jurassic · Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian)Jurassic
Named by: Gaetani et al. (1996a)
Type locality: Not recorded
Thickness: about 150 m
Lithology: About 150 m of dark limestone.
Synonyms: Not recorded

An Early Jurassic dark limestone unit, about 150 m thick.

Dark limestone is named by Gaetani et al. (1996a) and consists of 150m thick limestone and its age is Liassic (Pliensbachian).

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Karakoram column

MarlLimestoneSandstoneShale / mudFossils 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

Karakoram

Basin: Karakoram-Hindukush Basin
Region: Central Karakoram Batholith
Depositional environment: marine
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

An Early Jurassic (Liassic, Pliensbachian) limestone of the Karakoram Mesozoic succession.

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: 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: 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.

Cite this unit

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_darklimestone,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Dark Limestone} --- 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/dark-limestone (accessed August 30, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Gaetani et al. (1996a).