Datta Formation
Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Pliensbachian)
Part of Surghar Group
Jurassic in the time scale →Cited in 15 sources Last reviewed Aug 20, 2026
- Rank
- Not recorded
- Status
- Published
- Age
- Mesozoic · Jurassic · Early JurassicEarly Jurassic (Hettangian-Pliensbachian)
- Named by
- Danilchik (1961), renaming the 'Variegated Stage' of Gee (1945)
- Type locality
- Datta Nala, Surghar Range33.0000°N, 71.3167°E
- Thickness
- 50-150 m
- Lithology
- Variegated shale, sandstone, laterite, fire clay
- Synonyms
- Variegated Beds
The oldest Jurassic formation of northern Pakistan: colourful river and coastal-plain sandstones and clays that carry coal and fire clay and act as an important gas reservoir.
Continental to marginal marine sequence with lateritic horizons. Contains important fire clay deposits. Terrestrial in upper Indus, marine in uppermost Indus basin. Part of the Surghar 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
- continental, fluvial, marginal marine
- Coordinates
- 33.0000°N, 71.3167°E
Correlation
Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →
Economic significance
Source of refractory fire clay and coal; the 'Datta Sands' are an important gas/condensate reservoir in the Upper Indus Basin.
Remarks
The basal Jurassic unit of the Surghar Group, a variegated clastic succession (sandstone, shale, laterite and fire clay) deposited in continental to marginal-marine settings that marks the Triassic-Jurassic transition above the Kingriali dolomite; terrestrial in the Upper Indus and increasingly marine north-westward.
Sources (15)
- 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.
- Indian Plate Lexicon (indplex.geolex.org), Geological Society of India and international compilation.
- Shah, S.M.I. (1977). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 12.
- Hemphill, W.R. & Kidwai, A.H. (1973). Stratigraphy of the Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan Areas, Pakistan. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 716-B (Geological Investigations in Pakistan), 36 p.
- Malkani, M.S. (2016). Revised stratigraphy of Indus Basin (Pakistan): Sea level changes. In: Cretaceous Ecosystems and Their Responses to Paleoenvironmental Changes in Asia and the Western Pacific — Fourth International Symposium of IGCP Project 608, Novosibirsk 2016, Abstract Volume, pp. 97-99.
- Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
- Jamil, M., Ullah, I., Rahim, H.U., Khan, I., Abbas, W., Rehman, M.U., Rashid, A., Umar, M., Ali, A. & Siddiqui, N.A. (2024). Tracking Depositional Architecture and Diagenetic Evolution in the Jurassic Carbonates, Trans Indus Ranges, NW Himalayas. Minerals, 14, 1170.
- 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.
- 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).
- Gee, E.R. (edited by Gee, D.G.) (1989). Overview of the geology and structure of the Salt Range, with observations on related areas of northern Pakistan. In: Malinconico, L.L. & Lillie, R.J. (eds) Tectonics of the Western Himalayas. Geological Society of America Special Paper 232, 95-112.
- 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). Datta Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991
@misc{stratigraphypk_dattaformation,
author = {Qudsi, Lareb},
title = {{Datta 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/datta-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).
To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Danilchik (1961), renaming the 'Variegated Stage' of Gee (1945).
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