Gandaf formation

This unit (highlighted) within its province column; faded ends continue above and below. Line style marks the contact type.

The upper Karora-Group cover unit — garnet-bearing dark schist and marble above the Karora Formation.

Gandaf formation is named after the Gandaf village in Tarbela Lake area by Pouge et al. (1995) and consists of schist, slate, phyllite and marble. Dipietro and others (1999, 2001) on the basis of igneous rocks in the vicinity of Besham arranged under 3 groups namely Besham complex, Kotla complex and Black mountain complex. Swat granitic gneiss is named by Martin et al. (1962) for the discontinuous bodies at Chakdara, Dopialo, Ilam, Loe Sar, Choga. This intrudes the Proterozoic Manglaur, Gandaf and Tanawal formations in Swat area. Mansehra granitic gneiss is a vast pluton west of Hazara Kashmir syntaxis to Indus River (Shams 1969) but also exposed in the Khyber and Neelum Azad Kashmir. It intrudes the Proterozoic Gandaf and Tanawal formations. In some literature its age is mentioned as Cretaceous to Early Tertiary. Sikaram series is named after Sikaram Sar (4755m) peak of Sufaid Koh by Badshah et al. (2000) for the EW trending argillaceous rocks like claystone and carbonaceous shales in the lower part and slates and graphitic schists in the upper part. Badshah et al. (2000) mentioned the similarity between this and Landikotal slates of Khyber agency.

Significance. The upper part of the Karora Group cover sequence (Pogue et al., 1995; DiPietro et al., 1996), distinguished from the underlying Karora Formation by its conspicuous garnet-schist horizons and abundant intrusions; its lower contact with the Karora Formation is transitional.

Provinces

• 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