Paleozoic • Ordovician GSP memoir

Mansehra Granite

Early–Middle Ordovician (~478–466 Ma)

Cited in 7 sources Last reviewed Aug 2, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · OrdovicianEarly–Middle Ordovician (~478–466 Ma)
Named by: Shams (1961)
Type locality: Mansehra, Hazara, KP34.3333°N, 73.2000°E
Thickness: Plutonic body (several km)
Lithology: Tourmaline-bearing leucogranite, two-mica granite
Synonyms: Susal Gali Granite Gneiss; Hakale Granite

A large porphyritic two-mica / tourmaline-bearing leucogranite of the Hazara region that intrudes the Tanawal Formation; one of the best-studied granites of the NW Himalaya.

Intrusive into Tanawal Formation, providing maximum age constraint for the Tanawal. One of the best dated Cambrian granites in Himalaya.

Fossils

Not recorded

Contacts

In the Hazara Basin column

LimestoneMetamorphicIgneousFossils recordedUnconformityConformable

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type (wavy = unconformity inferred from a missing period). 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

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: Not recorded
Coordinates: 34.3333°N, 73.2000°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

Provides a key age constraint on the Tanawal Formation and records early Palaeozoic (Cambro-Ordovician), Andean-type accretional magmatism along the northern margin of East Gondwana. Modern U-Pb zircon geochronology places its crystallization in the Ordovician (~478-466 Ma), revising the older Rb-Sr estimate.

Sources (7)

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.
Naeem, M., Burg, J.-P., Ahmad, N., Chaudhry, M.N. & Khalid, P. (2016). U-Pb zircon systematics of the Mansehra Granitic Complex: implications on the early Paleozoic orogenesis in NW Himalaya of Pakistan. Geosciences Journal, 20(4), 427-447.
Kazmi, A.H. & Jan, M.Q. (1997). Geology and Tectonics of Pakistan. Graphic Publishers, Karachi.
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.
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).
Ogasawara, M., Fukuyama, M., Siddiqui, R.H. & Zhao, Y. (2018). Origin of the Ordovician Mansehra granite in the NW Himalaya, Pakistan: constraints from Sr–Nd isotopic data, zircon U–Pb age and Hf isotopes. In: Treloar, P.J. & Searle, M.P. (eds) Himalayan Tectonics: A Modern Synthesis. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 481.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_mansehragranite,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Mansehra Granite} --- 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/mansehra-granite (accessed August 30, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Shams (1961).