Mesozoic • Cretaceous

Indus Formation

Latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)

Stratigraphic position

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.

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.

Significance. 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.

Lithology: Continental laterite, bauxite and pisolitic ironstone beds (best developed in the Kotli area of Azad Kashmir); partly marine northward near Muzaffarabad.
Thickness: 10-50 m
Type locality: Kotli area, southern Azad Kashmir
Environment: continental, marine
Economic importance: Source of bauxite and laterite in the Kotli area of Azad Kashmir.

Fossils

Rare plant fossilsTrace fossils

Provinces

Hazara Basin Kohat Basin Potwar Basin Azad Kashmir

References

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.

Reviewer confidence: medium

Related units

Below · older

Kawagarh Formation

Cretaceous

Above · younger

Hangu Formation

Paleogene