Cenozoic • Neogene formation GSP memoir

Vihowa Formation

Miocene

Sulaiman Basin

Cited in 6 sources Last reviewed Aug 10, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: formation
Status: Published
Age: Cenozoic · Neogene · late Early–Middle MioceneMiocene
Named by: Hemphill and Kidwai (1973)
Type locality: Vihowa Road, Sulaiman Range31.0667°N, 70.2667°E
Thickness: ~700 m (type section, Vihowa Road)
Lithology: Grey and brown sandstone with subordinate red to brownish-red sandy siltstone; mudstone-rich in the lower part.
Synonyms: Not recorded

The lowest of the Sulaiman 'Siwalik' river deposits, full of Lower Siwalik mammal fossils, laid down as the foreland rivers got going ~17 million years ago.

Introduced by Hemphill and Kidwai (1973), type section at Vihowa Rud, the Vihowa Formation is red-to-maroon shale with grey-white calcareous sandstone and conglomerate plus silica sands, about 400–700 m thick. Its lower contact with the Chitarwata Formation and upper contact with the Litra Formation are disconformable. It is rich in continental vertebrates (Hemphill & Kidwai, 1973).

Fossils

Lower Siwalik mammals (e.g. Eotragus)

Contacts

In the Sulaiman Fold Belt column

SandstoneFossils 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

Sulaiman Fold Belt

Basin: Sulaiman Basin
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: fluvial, continental
Coordinates: 31.0667°N, 70.2667°E

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Correlation

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

Economic significance

Coal & lignite Metals & minerals

Oligocene-Miocene coal showings; part of the uranium- and silica-sand-bearing Vihowa Group.

Remarks

The lower unit of the Siwalik-equivalent molasse (Vihowa Group) of the Sulaiman Range, equivalent to the Kamlial–Chinji formations of the Potwar; its fluvial channel-floodplain deposits and Lower Siwalik mammal fauna record establishment of the Himalayan foreland river system by about 17 Ma.

Sources (6)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
Malkani, M.S. et al. (2018). Tectonic Map of Sulaiman Fold Belt, Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan.
Lindsay, E.H., Flynn, L.J. et al. (2005). Miocene stratigraphy and mammal fauna from the Sulaiman Range, Southwestern Himalayas, Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Malkani, M.S. (2010). Updated Stratigraphy and Mineral Potential of Sulaiman Basin, Pakistan. Sindh University Research Journal (Science Series), 42(2), 39-66.
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.
Hemphill, W.R. & Kidwai, A.H. (1973). Stratigraphy of the Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan Areas, Pakistan. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 716-B (Geological Investigations in Pakistan), 36 p.

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

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_vihowaformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Vihowa 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/vihowa-formation (accessed August 30, 2026).

To cite the unit's original definition instead, see: Hemphill and Kidwai (1973).

Below · older

Chitarwatta Formation

Paleogene

Above · younger

Litra Formation

Neogene