Mesozoic • Cretaceous GSP memoir

Indus Formation

Latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)

Cited in 3 sources Last reviewed Jul 17, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Cretaceous · Late CretaceousLatest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Kotli area, southern Azad Kashmir33.5156°N, 73.9019°E
Thickness: 10-50 m
Lithology: Continental laterite, bauxite and pisolitic ironstone beds (best developed in the Kotli area of Azad Kashmir); partly marine northward near Muzaffarabad.
Synonyms: Not recorded

A long-lived continental weathering crust (laterite and bauxite) of Azad Kashmir, standing in for an enormous gap in the rock record on the edge of the Indian shield.

Infra-Tertiary boundary unit representing continental to marginal marine conditions at K-Pg boundary. Contains laterite and bauxite deposits indicating sub-aerial exposure.

Fossils

Rare plant fossils Trace fossils

Contacts

In the Hazara Basin column

LimestoneMixedSandstoneShale / 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

Hazara Basin Kohat Basin Potwar Basin Azad Kashmir

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: continental, marine
Coordinates: 33.5156°N, 73.9019°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Metals & minerals

Source of bauxite and laterite in the Kotli area of Azad Kashmir.

Remarks

An unusual continental, unconformity-bounded unit spanning the Ordovician to Latest Cretaceous on the eastern (Azad Kashmir) margin of the basin; its laterite, bauxite and pisolitic ironstone record prolonged subaerial weathering and non-deposition on the Indian-shield margin, with marine influence only in the north near Muzaffarabad.

Sources (3)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
OpenStreetMap contributors and GEOnet Names Server (public geographic gazetteers), used to geolocate named GSP type localities to approximate decimal coordinates.
Malkani, M.S. (2019). Cretaceous Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Open Journal of Geology, 9, 671-673.

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). Indus Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_indusformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Indus 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/indus-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).

Below · older

Kawagarh Formation

Cretaceous

Above · younger

Hangu Formation

Paleogene