Paleozoic • Ordovician formation In GSP lexicon

Hisartang Formation

Ordovician

Northern Indus Suture

Cited in 4 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · OrdovicianOrdovician
Named by: Hussain et al. (1989)
Type locality: Hisartang, Attock-Cherat Range
Thickness: minimum 650 m
Lithology: White-to-grey, fine-grained unfossiliferous quartzite with worm burrows and dark argillite beds in the middle.
Synonyms: Not recorded

An Ordovician quartzite of the Attock-Cherat Range, between the Darwaza and Inzari units.

Hisartang Formation is named after Hisartang village by Hussain at al. (1990) for quartzite and argillite. Late Proterozoic sequence.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Khyber–Nowshera Belt column

LimestoneMetamorphicFossils 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

Khyber–Nowshera Belt

Basin: Northern Indus Suture
Region: Not recorded
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 Ordovician quartzite of the Attock-Cherat Range, conformable on the Darwaza Formation and overlain by the Inzari Limestone; on lithologic grounds it is correlated with the Early–Middle Ordovician Misri Banda Quartzite.

Sources (4)

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.
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.

Reviewer confidence: medium

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

APA

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_hisartangformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Hisartang 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/hisartang-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Hussain et al. (1989).

Below · older

Darwaza Formation

Above · younger

Inzari Limestone

Devonian