INTRODUCTION:

The Kohat plateau located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at the eastern side of Kohat
city, is present in the lesser Himalaya formed due to the collision between Indian and
Eurasian plates i.e. continental-continental convergence. The records of structural evolution
of this area suggested that it has tight anticlines and syncline structures. Due to episodic
deformation the structural pattern of this area was changed. This plateau is not much explored
so a little we know about it. It is also called as the most complex tectonic area of north
Pakistan. The alternate valleys and ridges of this area has moderate relief. The resistant
limestone and sandstone beds formed the ridges while the valleys are formed from the deep
cuts produced by erosion in shale and clay of this area.
Fig:1.1

TECTONIC SETUP:
It is also called the upper Indus basin. The Himalayan oroclinal trend is NW-SE in India; it
transforms into EW in Pakistan and becomes the NS with the Pakistani border. The collision
between the Indian and Eurasian plate has affected the western region of the plate more as
compared to the eastern region because of their uneven and complex structure. The crustal
rocks shortened horizontally and thickened vertically, and the chain of high mountains shows
the deformation of this region due to lithospheric convergence. Due to the collision of Indian
and Eurasian plates the northern parts have deformed tectonically. The Kohat plateau lies to
the west of the Potwar, which comprises of Eocene sequence and younger sedimentary rocks
which were deposited in tectonically restricted basin. The southern part of the plateau
comprises of evaporites from the Eocene sequence.

These rocks form east-west trending and gentle to steeply dipping overturned folds which
extend to tens of kilometers. In the northern region we come across tight, commonly
overturned folds, syncline faults and some thrust faults. These structures are very different
 from those of southern part. In the southern part there are east-west trending folds and north-
south dipping reverse faults. The Kohat plateau is tilted having moderate to steep dips and
thrust and normal faults forms the asymmetrical structures. It has very difficult geologic
attributes sometimes like cuesta region. The thrust and reverse faulting based on salt affected
or basement involves the transgressional tectonics. The Indian and Eurasian convergence has
many tight complex thrusts. As compared to eastern the effect of tectonic forces is more in
the western part because of which tectonic rotational activities has occurred, so that is why
the tectonic potential in western part is greater then in the eastern part of the Kohat plateau.
Through the seismic study of Kohat plateau we can locate the duplex features and the profile
between incompetent and competent layers.

The seismic data shows high to moderate dip bedding and the depositional process from high
energy to low energy. The only representative of middle Eocene age is the Kohat and kuldana
formations in Kohat plateau. The imbricate faults found in Kohat area were steeper. The
Kohat formation has duplex structure in the eastern part of Kohat plateau while more tectonic
damages are found in the western part of plateau. In Kohat plateau middle Eocene is very
much developed. The presence of Eocene detachments which were having continuous
sequence of shale were identified by large number of low mountain ridges and this area has
also large number of duplex structures.

GEOLOGY:
Kohat plateau has its distinguishable passive roof duplex geometry which is formed from the
thrust slices of pre-tertiary stratigraphy. In this area the transpressional fault is responsible for
the structures which are exposed at the surface and those in the sub surface. Compressional
structures dominate the major part of plateau while strike-slip faulting is only seen in
southern Kohat plateau. Kohat plateau comprises of structure elevated and heavily deformed
thrust sheet.
The translation of massive thrust fault of Eocene evaporites is recorded from the broad
synclines, Pop-ups, a narrow fault, and evaporite-cored anticline. In the Kohat plateau the
main E-W structures are the result of transgression tectonics. A vertical offset in the fault
structures were called flower structures. Due to detachment below the Jurassic in Tolanj
anticlinorium, below the ghazij shale and in kuldana shale. The structural features in kohat
plateau are regional detachment fault below Jurassic and local detachment in Eocene
formation which resulted in the formation of thrust sheet and fold. The rocks in Kohat plateau
are of hangu formation, lokhart limestone and patala formation. The most important N-S
structural feature in the Kohat plateau is the kalabagh fault it is at the southernmost part of
kohat foreland fault and thrust belt which runs for about 120km.
STRATIGRAPHY OF KOHAT PLATEAU:
The stratigraphy of this area consists of three groups which are as under:
1. Rawalpindi group-Miocene
2. Siwalik group-Pliocene
3. Charat group-Eocene
RAWALPINDI FROMATION:
The Murree and kamalial formation from the Miocene age represents this group.
 SIWALIK GROUP:
The chijni formation of siwalik group overlain the kamalial formation of the Rawalpindi
group and is composed of sand stone, clay and silt stone ranging from grey to brownish grey
in color.
CHARAT GROUP:
The limestone from Kohat formation and marine clay and sand stone from the kuldana
formation represents this group. It also has the panoba shale from early Eocene age.
Different wells were drilled in this area due to which the stratigraphic succession was found
out as:
JURRASIC SUCCESSION:
The oldest rock found for the Jurassic period was in the samaan suk formation. This
formation has off white to greyish white limestone containing traces of pyrite and dark grey
peloids.
CRETACEOUS SUCESSION:
The rocks obtained from Jurassic succession were from the following formations:
1. Lumshiwal formation
2. Darsamand formation
3. Chichali formation
PALEOCENE SUCCESSION:
The following formation were found in the Paleocene succession:
1. Hangu formation
2. Patala formation
EOCENE SUCCESSION:
The following formations rocks were obtained from this succession:
1. Panoba shale
2. Sheikhan limestone
 3. Jatta gypsum
4. Kuldana formation
5. Kohat formation
The above successions are given in the table 1.1.

AGE FORMATIONS DESCRIPTION ENVIROMENT

OF
DEPOSTION
MIDDLE DHOK Grey sandstone
PATHAN with brown
FORMATION calcareous clay
PLIOCENE

SIWALAK GROUP

EARLY NAGRI Sandstone with

FORMATION interbeds of dull
orange clay

LATE CHINJI Red clay with

FORMATION subordinate fine-
grained soft
sandstone

MIDDLE KAMALIAL Grey to greenish Fluvial

MIOCENE

sandstone sediments
RAWALPINDI GROUP

FORMATION grey
with subordinate
clay

EARLY MURREE Red purple

FORMATION sandstone and
marl

MIDDLE KOHAT Calcareous shale

FORMATION and light grey
limestone
CHERAT GROUP

Shallow marine
EOCENE

KULDANA Brownish red silt Continental

FORMATION clay with thin
beds of sandstone
EARLY JATTA Gypsum Lagoonal
GYPSUM
FORMATION

Table 1.1
PETROLEUM CAPACITY:
The kohat plateau consists of nodular limestone with green shale and marl. This formation
may also act as reservoir for hydrocarbons. The kohat plateau area has almost 48% of the
worlds known petroleum reserves, offering a large area for hydrocarbon exploration due to
the lack of technology and drilling techniques it mostly remained unexplored.
CONCLUSION:
The kohat plateau should be studied and explored for hydrocarbon reserves especially for oil
and gas due to large prospecting approach available. Its exploration can be very economical
although it requires a great deal of hard work and expenditure of money. It is the best
example of continental-continental convergence in the Himalaya range.
REFRENCES:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327147110_Structural_Evolution_of_the_Kohat_Fo
ld_and_Thrust_Belt_in_the_Shakardarra_Area_South_Eastern_Kohat_Pakistan

https://csegrecorder.com/articles/view/kohat-plateau-with-reference-to-himalayan-tectonic-
general-study

https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002AM/finalprogram/abstract_46323.htm

http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/geology/PDF-FILES/Vol_44_27-42.pdf

http://nceg.uop.edu.pk/Thesis/MPhil/Thesis36/AmjadAliThesis-1997.pdf

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/8/9/311/htm

https://cseg.ca/assets/files/resources/abstracts/2004/049S0131-
Paracha_W_Kohat_Plateau.pdf

http://nceg.uop.edu.pk/Thesis/PhD/Thesis9/SajjadAhmadThesis-2003.pdf