Paleozoic • Devonian In GSP lexicon

Shogram Formation

Middle–Late Devonian

Cited in 8 sources Last reviewed Jul 30, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Paleozoic · Devonian · Middle–Late DevonianMiddle–Late Devonian
Named by: Desio (1966)
Type locality: Shogram village (mount), Yarkhun valley, Chitral
Thickness: ~230 m at the Kurâgh Spur type section (180 m on the Yarkhun R.; ~80 m at Chillinji); the widely-cited ~800 m (Bender & Raza 1995; Kazmi & Jan 1997) is unsupported (Talent et al. 1999)
Lithology: Massive crinoidal dolomite in the lower part; bedded dolomite, fossiliferous limestone with corals and thin shale in the middle; and cross-bedded fine- to medium-grained quartzite with brachiopod-bearing limestone in the upper part.
Synonyms: Sewakht Formation; Owir Formation

The main Devonian limestone-and-quartzite unit of Chitral (~230 m thick at its Kurâgh Spur type section), rich in corals and brachiopods, now thrust over much younger Cretaceous rocks.

Named after Shogram village. Contains glaciomarine diamictites indicating Permo-Carboniferous glaciation on Asian plate.

Fossils

Rugose corals Brachiopods ConodontsTrilobites (Neocalmonia chitralensis, N. batillifera orientalis)

Contacts

In the Hindukush-Chitral column

MetamorphicLimestoneFossils 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

Hindukush-Chitral Karakoram

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: marine, shallow marine
Coordinates: Not recorded

Correlation

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

Economic significance

Not recorded

Remarks

The principal Devonian carbonate of the Chitral-Hindukush sequence, recording a marine-shelf environment; it is thrust south-eastward over the Cretaceous Reshun Formation along the Reshun Thrust and undergoes rapid lateral facies changes that have long complicated local correlation.

Sources (7)

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.
Zanchi, A. & Gaetani, M. (2011). The geology of the Karakoram range, Pakistan: the new 1:100,000 geological map of Central-Western Karakoram. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 130(2), 161-262.
Shah, S.M.I. (2009). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 22.
Gaetani, M., Mawson, R., Sciunnach, D. & Talent, J.A. (2008). The Devonian of Western Karakorum (Pakistan). Acta Geologica Polonica, 58(3), 261-285.
Feist, R., Talent, J.A. & Mawson, R. (2001). Devonian trilobites from the Shogrâm Formation, Kurâgh, Chitral (NW Pakistan). Alcheringa, 25(2), 107-115.
Talent, J.A., Gaetani, M., Mawson, R., Molloy, P.D. & Conaghan, P.J. (1999). Early Ordovician and Devonian conodonts from the Western Karakoram and Hindu Kush, northernmost Pakistan. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 105(2), 201-226.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_shogramformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Shogram 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/shogram-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Desio (1966).

Below · older

Chilmarabad Formation

Devonian

Above · younger

Lun Shale

Silurian–Devonian

Referenced in other successions

Overlain by Margach Formation

Underlain by Charun Quartzite