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BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE KIRTHAR FORMATION, MACH AREA, SULAIMAN

FOLD-THRUST BELT, BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN

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Bahria University Research Journal of Earth Sciences BURJES
Vol. 4, Issue 1, June 2019 Open Access

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE KIRTHAR FORMATION, MACH AREA,

SULAIMAN FOLD-THRUST BELT, BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN
NIZAM UDDIN1, NAJEEBULLAH BABAR1, MOHIBULLAH MOHIBULLAH2,
AIMAL KHAN KASI1, MEHRAB KHAN3, MUKHTIAR GHANI4
1
Centre of Excellence in Mineralogy, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan.
2
Department of Geology, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan.
3
Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Bahria University Karachi Campus, Pakistan
4
Geological Survey of Pakistan, Quetta, Pakistan
Corresponding author Email: mohibullah.kakar@um.uob.edu.pk

Received: 27 October 2018 Revised /Accepted: 25 April 2019

ABSTRACT
The Kirthar Formation in Mach area of the Sulaiman Fold-Thrust Belt (SFTB) has yielded rich but moderately diverse larger benthic
foraminiferal assemblage, comprising of thirty species from nineteen genera, suggesting a late Middle Eocene to Late Eocene (SBZ 18-
SBZ 20) age. The late Middle Eocene (SBZ 18) is recognized by the co-occurrence of Pellatispira madraszi, Nummulites maximus,
Borelis vonderschmitti, Nummulites chavannesi, Discocyclina discus, Discocyclina preaomphalus, Silvestriella tetraedra, Asterocyclina
sireli and Asterocyclina stellata. The boundary between Middle and Late Eocene is marked by the first occurrence of Nummulites
fabianii and the disappearance of typical Bartonian taxa such as Nummulites maximus, Discocyclina discus, Discocyclina preaomphalus,
Asterocyclina sireli, Asterocyclina stellata.

KEYWORDS: Larger Benthic Foraminifera; Biostratigraphy; Eocene; Kirthar Formation; Sulaiman Fold-Thrust Belt.

INTRODUCTION and diverse, as documented in a reconnaissance study of Jones

(1961), who has reported more than one hundred and fifty
Kirthar Formation displays thick exposures with wide lateral species, presumably based on random collection from different
extension throughout the Kirthar Fold Thrust Belt (KFTB) and outcrops without mentioning their details.
a greater part of the Sulaiman Fold-Thrust Belt (SFTB) (Jones,
1961; Shah, 2009). The formation is named after Kirthar Range
and the section along the Gaj River in the western Sindh is
designated as its type section, where it is about 1270 m thick.
However, there is great variation in thickness, as it is about 305
m thick in the Spintangi area, Harnai, up to 914 m thick in some
parts of the Kalat Plateau and reaches to a maximum thickness
of up to 1829 m in the Marri-Bugti hills (Jones, 1961). The
formation is dominantly composed of limestone in most of the
western Sulaiman Belt, whereas shales, marls and gypsum are
also present in some areas (Jones, 1961; Shah, 2009).
Limestone beds are medium to thick and massive, forming high
cliffs due to its hard and resistant nature. Limestone is white,
grey and cream in color whereas shales are olive, yellow and
grey. Kirthar Formation has transitional contact with the
underlying Ghazij Formation or represents a gradational contact
with underlying Tiyon Formation in some parts of the Kirthar
Belt. The upper contact is unconformable either with overlying
Nagri Formation or Nari Formation (Jones, 1961; Shah, 2009)
(Fig. 1).

The formation is documented to contain rich assemblages of

foraminifera, echinoderms, algae, gastropods, bivalves and Fig. 1. Geological map of the Mach area showing the
bryozoans (Jones, 1961). Foraminifera are the most abundant distribution of Kirthar Formation (modified after Jones, 1961).
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 Bahria University Research Journal of Earth Sciences Vol. 4 (1), 2019
Based on his diverse assemblages the formation has been dated
as Early Eocene to Early Oligocene. Recent studies based on
some planktonic and smaller benthic foraminifera in parts of
southern Sindh such as Sukkur and Kotdigi also suggests
Middle Eocene to lower Oligocene age (Usmani et al., 2008).
However, despite the wide geographic extension of the Kirthar
Formation and its high vertical thicknesses, it is least studied in
terms of foraminifera and lacks the modern biostratigraphic
framework as compare to their Eocene counterparts of the of
the Kohat and Potwar plateaus in Pakistan (Ahmad et al., 2014;
Ahmad et al., 2016). In Mach area, Kirthar Formation has never
been studied for foraminifera and here an attempt has been
made to (a) document the foraminiferal fauna of the Kirthar
Formation in the study area (b) establish biostratigraphic
foraminiferal zones on the basis of recovered foraminiferal
assemblages.
Tectonic Settings
The fold and thrust belts of western Pakistan comprises
Sulaiman and Kirthar belts. They are the south and
southwestern extension of Himalayas (Bannert, 1992; Bender
and Raza 1995; Kazmi and Jan, 1997). Main Boundary and Salt
Range thrusts of sub Himalayas bound the SFTB in the north.
The SFTB is southward-convex arcuate belt characterized by
east-west trending folds. Kirthar Fold-Thrust Belt (KFTB) and
Indus plain bound the belt in the south. The Quetta Syntaxis is
a hairpin tight bend which separates the SFTB from KFTB. The
Pishin Belt and left lateral strike slip Chaman Fault are located
farther west (Lawrence et al., 1981; Patrait and Achache, 1984;
Basse and Courtillet, 1988; Searle et al., 1997). The SFTB
gradually lose its amplitude at frontal foredeeps and submerges
into Indus plain. It comprises over 10 km thick Triassic to
Pleistocene sediments with some volcanic and volcaniclastic
succession (e.g. Bibai Formation; Kazmi, 1979; Khan et al.,
1999) (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Generalized geological and Tectonic map of the South-
West Pakistan. The study area is in extreme western proximity
of Suleiman Ranges representing Quetta syntaxes. (After Kasi
et al., 2012).
Page 2
Most of the geology and tectonics of Pakistan including
Western Fold-Thrust Belt (WFTB) owes to the head on
collision of Indo-Pak plate with Eurasian Plate at its
northwestern margin (Molnar and Tapponier, 1975; Powell,
1979; Bordet, 1978; Acharyya, 1979; Bingham and Klootwijk,
1980). The collision occurred around 55 Ma, Muslim Bagh-
Zhob Ophiolite pops out in the Zhob valley, which is considered
to be the relics of oceanic crust of the eastern Tethys Ocean
obducted onto the western passive margin of Indo-Pak plate
around 65 Ma, which indicates the initial collision of plates
(Alleman, 1979; Gnos et al., 1996; Kakar et al., 2012). After
the initial collision of Indian plate, since the collision was
oblique, a remnant Tethys Ocean was formed in the west of
SFTB (Pishin Belt) in Eocene, which was receiving detritus
from evolving Himalayas through Palaeo Indus River (Qayyum
et al., 1996; Kasi et al., 2018). After the complete suturing and
uplifting of Pishin belt the drainage was diverted towards the
foreland and fordeeps of Sulaiman and Kirthar belts and thick
Himalayan sourced molasses succession was deposited in
Oligocene- Miocene. The Indus River is presently depositing
sediments in Punjab and Sindh plains. In Miocene-Pliocene
period the thick locally derived Urak and Sibi groups molasses
were deposited in the inter-mountain basins within the SFTB
(Kassi et al., 2009).
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The studied section of the Kirthar Formation is located at about
2.5 km in the east of Mach town (N 29° 51ʹ 25ʺ; E 67° 21ʹ 3ʺ)
was measured and sampled. This section is 106 m thick,
comprising of medium to thick bedded, nodular limestone. A
total of forty-five samples with an average interval of about 1
to 2 m were collected. The rock samples were thin sectioned
and photographed in plane polarized light with a digital camera
(C-35AD-2) attached to an Olympus Microscope (BH-2) in the
Centre of Excellence in Mineralogy, University of Balochistan,
Quetta.
BIOSTRATIGRPAHIC RESULTS
Larger Benthonic Foraminifera are abundant and diverse in the
Tertiary age shallow marine sediments with thousands of
species documented from various regions of the world
(Loeblich and Tappan, 1988; BouDagher-Fadel, 2008; Ahmad
et al., 2014; Ali et al., 2018). Their high diversity, abundance,
wide geographic distribution and many of them with short
stratigraphic ranges have made them excellent biostratigraphic
markers (Serra-Kiel et al., 1998; BouDagher-Fadel, 2008;
Ahmad et al., 2014, 2016). They are widely used in the
biostratigraphy of shallow marine sediments and in the last two
decades twenty-six standard biostratigraphic zones have been
established for Palaeocene to Miocene of the Tethyan region
(Cahuzac and Poignat, 1997; Serra-Kiel et al., 1998;
BouDagher-Fadel, 2008).
These biozones are mainly derived from the ranges of the LBF
recovered from the western Tethyan region and some parts of
the eastern Tethys such as Pakistan and India which were
comparatively least studied (Cahuzac and Poignat, 1997; Serra-
Kiel et al., 1998). However, the recent studies in the last decade
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 Bahria University Research Journal of Earth Sciences Vol. 4 (1), 2019
in various parts of the eastern Tethys have revealed some faunal
differences linked to India-Asia collision (Afzal et al., 2009;
2011a; Zhang et al., 2013; Ahmed et al., 2016). These faunal
differences are particularly noticed in the Palaeocene and
Eocene, demonstrated to have been due to some biogeographic
barriers between eastern and western Tethys, which gave rise to
non-synchronous evolution (Afzal et al., 2011a, 2011b; Zhang
et al., 2013; Kahsnitz et al., 2016). However, there are many
cosmopolitan taxa which can be used to correlate the
Palaeogene strata throughout Tethys.
The Kirthar Formation in Mach area of the western part of the
Sulaiman Belt has yielded rich faunal assemblage comprising
of thirty species from nineteen different genera, suggesting a
late Middle Eocene (SBZ 18) to Late Eocene age for the Kirthar
Formation in the study area. Late Middle Eocene (SBZ 18)
identified by the presence of Pellatispira madraszi, Nummulites
maximus, Borelis vonderschmitti, Nummulites chavannesi,
Discocyclina discus, Discocyclina preaomphalus, Asterigerina
rotula, Linderina brugesi, Silvestriella tetraedra, Asterocyclina
sireli, Asterocyclina stellata, Medocia blayensis, Meghalayana
indica, and taxa which typifies only Late Eocene are not found
in this assemblage.
Fig. 3. Biostratigraphic log showing the species distribution and diversity in Kirthar Formation at Mach Jalal Abad, section.
Page 3
Most of these species such as Pellatispira madraszi, Borelis
vonderschmitti, Nummulites chavannesi have their first
appearance in SBZ 18, whereas Nummulites maximus has its
last occurrence in SBZ 18 (Banerji, 1981; Serra-Kiel et al.,
1998; Rasser et al., 1999; Özcan et al., 2010; Less and Özcan,
2012; Costa et al., 2013; Cotton et al., 2016). Similarly, species
such as Discocyclina discus, Discocyclina preaomphalus,
Asterocyclina sireli, Asterocyclina stellata are reported from
the Bartonian of the western as well as the eastern Tethys and
there is no evidence of their occurrence in Late Eocene (Özcan
et al., 2010, 2016; Less et al., 2011; Ali et al., 2018). Late
Eocene is identified by the first appearance of Nummulites
fabianii and cannot be further divided in to SBZ 19 and SBZ 20
due to lack of index taxa. Other associated species include
Asterigerina rotula, Medocia blayensis, Borelis vonderschmitti
and species of Silvestriella, Sphaerogypsina, and
Quinqueloculina. Nummulites fabianii is a common index
species of the Late Eocene and is documented from various
regions of eastern and western Tethys (Meinhold and
Boudagher-Fadel, 2010; Özcan et al., 2010; Less et al., 2011;
Bukhari et al., 2016). A detailed biostratigraphic species log is
given (Fig. 3) and their micro-photograph plate presented in
Fig. 4.
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 Bahria University Research Journal of Earth Sciences Vol. 4 (1), 2019

Fig 4. The micro-photograph plate of fossils.1-3, Asterigerina rotula, 1, MJK-10; 2, MJK-19; 3, MJK-17. 4-6, Medocia blayensis, 4,
MJK-30; 5, MJK-10; 6, MJK-2. 7-8. Asterocyclina sireli, 7. MJK-2; 8, MJK-6. 9-10, Asteocyclina stellata, 9, MJK-3; 10, MJK-6. 11-
12, Asterocyclina spp., 11, MJK-6; 12, MJK-1. 13-14, Discocyclina discus, 13, MJK-2; 14, MJK-6. 15-16, Discocyclina dispansa, 15,
MJK-3; 16, MJK-4. 17, Discocyclina praeomphalus, MJK-7. 18-19, Discocyclina spp., 18, MJK-4: 19, MJK-6. 20, Glomalveolina sp.,
MJK-18. 21-22, Borelis vonderschmitti, 21, MJK-44; 22, MJK-45. 23-24, Linderina brugesi, 23, MJK16; 24, MJK-26. 25-26,
Sphaerogypsina spp., 25, MJK-19; 26, MJK-20. 27-28, Pyrgo spp., 27, MJK18; 28, MJK-25. 29-30, Quinqueloculina spp., 29, MJK-
33; 30, MJK-43. 31-33, Operculina spp., 31, MJK-3; 32, MJK-5; 33, MJK-2. 34-35, Meghalayana indica, 34, MJK-9; 35, MJK-11.
36-37, Silvestriella tetraedra, 36, MJK-5; 37, MJK-26. 38-39, Silvestriella spp., 38, MJK-6; 39, MJK-35. 40-43, Heterostegina spp.,
40, 42, MJK-9; 41, MJK-4; 43, MJK-12. 44-45, Nummulites maximus, 44, MJK-7; 45, MJK-9. 46-47, Nummulites Chavannesi, 46,
MJK-6; 47, MJK-9. 48-50, Nummulites fabianii, 48, MJK-35; 49, MJK-39; 50, MJK-40. 51-56, Nummulites spp., 51, 56, MJK-40; 52,
MJK-39; 53, 55, MJK-6; 54, MJK-9. 57-59, Pellatispira madraszi, 57, MJK-19; 58, MJK-18; 59, MJK-17. 60-61, Pellatispira spp.,
60, MJK-34; 61, MJK-10. (3-6,21-30,44-47) Scale bar 200 µm; (1-2, 7-20,31-43,48-61) Scale bar 500 µm.

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 Bahria University Research Journal of Earth Sciences Vol. 4 (1), 2019
CONCLUSION
The Eocene Kirthar Formation at Mach yields a well preserved
larger benthic foraminifera comprising some thirty species from
nineteen different genera, suggesting a late Middle to Late
Eocene age. The recovered assemblage contain many index
taxa such as Pellatispira madraszi, Borelis vonderschmitti,
Discocyclina discus, Discocyclina preaomphalus,
Asterocyclina sireli, Asterocyclina stellata and Nummulites
fabianii, which have wide geographic distribution facilitating
stratigraphic correlation across the eastern and western Tethys.
In addition to this, the Kirthar assemblages also contain some
faunal elements such as Meghalayana indica and Discocyclina
praeomphalous which are restricted to Middle to Late Eocene
of Indian subcontinent.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are thankful to Deputy Secretary Murad Khan Kassi,
Deputy Commissioner Shah Fahad and Assistant
Commissioner Junaid Khan for providing security in the field
area. We also thank Centre of Excellence in Mineralogy,
University of Balochistan, Quetta for funding field work.
Professor Azam Sasoli is acknowledged for his hospitality and
providing accommodation in the field area.
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