Jurassic

The Jurassic system is mainly represented by limestone, shale and sandstone with subordinate
dolomite and ferruginous beds. The close of the Triassic is marked by emergence in the Salt
Range, Trans-Indus ranges and Hazara areas while a continuity of sedimentation has been
recognized in the Axial Belt (Hunting Survey Corporation, 1961 ; Sokolov and Shah , 1965). The
Lower Jurassic rocks rest with a disconformity either on the Upper Triassic (Kingrali Formation)
as in the Salt Range and Trans-Indus ranges, or on older rocks as seen in parts of Hazara. The
lower part of the Lower Jurassic (Datta Formation) consist of arenaceous and argillaceous
sediments of dominanly continental origin that grade up in the sequence into marine calcareous
and argillaceous rocks with a Lower Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) fauna (Shinawari Formation).
Thus the marine transgression in the Kohat-Potwar Province seems to have taken place in Early
Jurassic time as contrasted to the Axial Belt where there is no conclusive evidence of any break
at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and the sediments are mainly limestone and shale. The Axial
Belt region, therefore, offers a more complete marine Early Jurassic sequence.
By Middle Jurassic, marine conditions were well-established in most of the areas and mainly
carbonate rocks were deposited. The close of the Middle Jurassic is marked by regressive facies
in the Kohat-Potwar Province where Late Jurassic arenaceous, argillaceous and glauconitic
sediments (lower part of Chichali Formation) rest with a disconformity either on the Middle
Callovian (Trans-Indus ranges) or on Lower Callovian-Upper Bathonian beds (Kohat, Kala
Chitta and Hazara).
The Jurassic in the Axial Belt and Lower Indus Basin is represented by a great thickness (several
thousand metres) of marine limestone and shale with subordinate sandstone interbeds in the
lower part. The limestone is micritic colitic, pisolitic, pellitic, shelly and reefoid. It is thin
bedded in the lower and upper parts and thick bedded in the middle part. The color varies from
black and dark grey to light grey.
Cephalopods have been reported mainly from the upper and lower levels while others fossils
such as radiolarians, foraminifers, corals, brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods, crinoids and algae
are distributed in different parts of the Jurassic sequence. The rocks were deposited mainly in
shallow marine environment, but towards the close of the Early Jurassic (Bajocian) the Axial
Belt became tectonically active and temporary emergence during Middle Jurassic has been
inferred. The close of the Callovian (the youngest being lower Callovian in the area) marked a
widespread withdrawal of the sea from the whole of the Indus Basin. The area was submerged
again in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous times. The evidence from the Lower Indus Basin
of the Lower Jurassic faunas, from the disconformably overlying Sembar formation Goru
formation of mainly Early Cretaceous age, is scanty, but it seems that a major transgression after
the Callovian emergence took place probably during Tithonian times in the Lower Indus Basin
and in Upper Oxfordian in the Upper Indus Basin. Marine sedimentation continued during the

Early Cretaceous and thus the Jurassic|Cretaceous boundary like that of the Kohat-Potwar
Province, is regarded as transitional in parts of the Lower Indus Basin (authors view).
In the Axial Belt this regressive phase is not well-defined and studied, but there is evidence from
some parts of a post-Callovian (Mazar Dirk), pre-Callovian (Nakus) and post-Callovian
disconformities (authors view). Thus, in the Axial Belt region, the Upper Jurassic to Lower
Cretaceous marine rocks (Sembar or Goru formations) rest with a disconformity on Early to
Middle Jurassic sediments. Hunting Survey Corporations (1961), however, considers in some
areas of Baluchistan that no evidence of a break within the Jurassic or at the Jurassic|Cretaceous
boundary exists.
The thickness of the Jurassic sequences varies from 820 m in the Kohat-Province to over 3000 m
in the Lower Indus Basin and the Axial Belt.
1. Lower Indus Basin and the Axial Belt
2. Upper Indus Basin (Kohat-Potwar Province)

Upper Indus Basin (Kohat-Potwar Province)

The Jurassic system of the Lower Indus Basin is represented by Datta Formation (Early
Jurassic), Shinawari Formation (Early to Middle Jurassic), Samana Suk Formation (Middle
Jurassic) and the lower part or whole (in parts of Hazara) of the Chichali Formation. In northern
Hazara even the lower part of the mainly Lower Cretaceous Lumshiwal Formation is Late
Jurassic in age. The Chichali and the Lumshiwal Formations are dealt with under the Cretaceous
system. An intra-Jurassic disconformity between the Samna Suk Formation and the Chichali
Formation is recognized in all these sections. The Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous is
transitional in most of these sections.

1. Datta Formation
The name Datta Formation was introduced by Danilchik (1961) and Danilchik and Shah (1967)
to replace the name Variegated Stage of Gee (1945) and earlier workers. The Formation is best
developed in the Trans-Indus ranges and Salt Range. The name is adopted for similar rocks in
parts of Kohat (the lowest part of oldest Samana beds of Davies, 1930), Kala Chitta and
Hazara (Red beds and parts of Kioto Limestone of Middlemiss, 1896; Lower part of Maira
Formation of Davies and Gardezi, 1965). The type section is located in Datta Nala (lat. 33o
00N : long, 71o 19 E) in the Surghar Range.
The formation is mainly of continental origin and consists of variegated (red, maroon, grey,
green and white) sandstone, shale, siltstone and mudstone with irregularly distributed calcareous,
dolomitic, carbonaceous, ferruginous glass and fireclay horizons. The fireclay is normally

present in the lower part while the upper part includes a thick bed (4 to 7 m) of maroon shale
easily recognizable in Salt Range and Trans Indus ranges.
The formation extends as a tongue in Kala Chitta, Hazara and parts of Kohat area where it ia
represented by 7 to 10 m of molted quartzose sandstone, ferruginous (haematitic) sandstone and
fireclay. In Hazara, the basal beds are brownish calcerous grits.
The Datta Formation is widely in the western part of the Salt Range (west past of Jalar Lake) and
in the Trans-Indus ranges (Surghar, Shinghar, Shaikh Budin Hill and western Kishore Rannge).
The thickness in the type locality is 212 m but increases to 230 m in Punnu Nala to th west and
over 400 m in the Shaikh Budin Hill. In the south-western end of Khisor range the thickness is
reduced to 150 m. In the main Salt Range the thickness is 150 m in Nammal Gorge and decreases
further east. In Hazara, the thickness ranges from 0-10 m (10 m in the Bagnotar section). In Kala
Chitta (Chak Dalla section) the thickness is 6 m. The Kala Chitta persists in faulted outcrops
further west in Mazari Tang and parts of the eastern Kohat Tribal Belt.
This formation has disconformable lower contact throughout its distribution. It rests
unconformably on the Kingriali Formation in the Salt Range, Trans-Indus ranges, Kala Chitta
and eastern Kohat. In Hazara the formation unconformably overlies doubtful Precambrian
(Hazara formation), Paleozoic and Triassic rocks and is nit developed in some parts of Hazara
(e.g Kalapani section). The upper contact with the Shinawari Formation is gradational.
No diagnostic fossils have been reported from the formation except some carbonaceous remains.
As the formation underlies the Shinawari Formation which in its lower part has yielded lower
Toarcian ammonites, the age is inferred as early Jurassic, mainly pre-Toarcian.