Kohistan Island Arc

Complex
• North of the MMT lies a fossil island arc, called the Kohistan Island Arc.
Fig. 2.23. Geological map of
Kohistan Island Arc. 2)
Ultramafites; 3) Greenschist
belt-ophiolitic melange; 4)
Jijal ultramafites; 5)
Southern Amphibolitic belt;
6) "Pyroxene Granulite" belt;
7) Northern Amphibolitic, 9)
Utror Volcanics; , 9)
Granitoid intrusions; 13)
Precambrian and Paleozoic
series; 14) Upper Paleozoic to
Triassic series of the Srinagar
Basin; 15) Foreland Cenozoic
deposits (Murree Formation)
• To the west, the arc complex closes towards Afghanistan ("western
domain"); to the east, east of the Nanga Parbat Syntaxis, it extends to the
Deosai and Ladakh (mostly in India) areas ("eastern domain").
• To the south, the Main Mantle Thrust (MMT) separates the Arc Complex
from rocks of the Indo-Pakistan Plate; to the north, the Main Karakorum
Thrust (MKT) separates the Arc from rocks of the Eurasian Plate.
• The Arc Complex consists of calc-alkaline plutonites and volcanics,
metasediments, granulites and amphibolites.
• The MMT and MKT are narrow lithotectonic zones that are characterised by
outcrops of metavolcanics and ophiolitic melanges that record suturing of
the Arc to the Indo-Pakistan Plate in the south and the Eurasian Plate in the
north.
• A generalized sequence of geologic formations from south to north is:
 Main Mantle Thrust Zone (MMT)
• Main Mantle Thrust Zone marks the trace of fossil trench along which the
Indo-Pakistan Plate have been subducted northwards.
• Greenschist, serpentinites, volcanics, talc schists, marbles and calc-schists,
gabbros and peridotites are present. These rocks are in discontinuous
masses that have been squeezed and tectonically sliced off.
• The Shangla Thrust, the Makhad Thrust and the Kishora Thrust have
subdivided the MMT Zone successively southwards into the Shangla
blueschist melange, the Charbagh greenschist melange and the Mingora
ophiolitic melange. The Mingora melange hosts emerald mineralization.
• The three melange units originated independently, but were juxtaposed
when the continent to continent collision took place in Middle Eocene.
 Amphibolite Belt
• Amphibolite Belt enters Pakistan from eastern Afghanistan. It bifurcates into a
Southern and a Northern Amphibolite Belt, enveloping the Chilas mafic-ultramafic
complex.
• Southern Amphibolite Belt consists of intermediate igneous to ultramafics,
although amphibolite constitutes only about 25 %.
• Northern Amphibolite Belt, shows and amphibolite layer north of the Chilas mafic-
ultramafic complex.
• Northern Amphibolite Belt exposes the thickest about 15 km part near the Panjkora
River.
• The northern amphibolites are more banded, foliated and layered amphibolites that
were further classified into epidote amphibolites, plagioclase amphibolites and
garnet amphibolites.
• The amphibolite belts represent highly deformed and recrystallized belts of arc-type
plutonics, metasediments and metavolcanics.
 Jijal-Chilas Igneous Complexes
• The Jijal-Chilas Mafic-Ultramafic Complexes represent highly
metamorphosed sequences of mafic-ultramafic rocks.

Figure 2.4.
• The Jijal Complex is a composite mass of a northern belt of garnet
granulites and a southern belt of alpine-type ultramafites.
•
• The rocks of the granulite portion consist of noritic gabbros, with less
abundant pyroxenites and troctolites.
•
• The ultramafic rocks are composed of peridotites, with subordinate
pyroxenites, harzburgites and dunites.
• The Chilas Mafic-Ultramafic Complex of the Kohistan Island Arc is about 300 km
long between the Nanga Parbat in the east and the Dir District in the west, and is
about 40 km wide in its central part.
•
• The rocks of the Chilas Complex are composed dominantly (> 80 %) of norites,
with subordinate troctolites, pyroxenites, anorthosites, hypersthene quartz
diorites and ultramafics.
•
• The Chilas and Jijal Complexes are considered root zones of the Kohistan Island
Arc that were emplaced during Early Cretaceous and suffered granulite facies
metamorphism at 750 ° to 850 °C and 5 to 6.5 kb.
 Kohistan Batholith
• The Kohistan Batholith is a part of a belt of the Trans-Himalayan plutonic
complexes, situated north of the MMT/Indus- Tsangpo Suture.
•
• The mass equivalent to the Kohistan Batholith, located on the eastern side
of the Nanga Parbat, is called the Ladakh Batholith.
Figure 2.24.
• Kohistan Batholith is a composite calc-alkaline intrusive that ranges from basic
towards acid composition. In many places, dolerites and lamprophyres are the
youngest intrusions.
•
• More than 80 % of the Batholith is composed of diorites and quartz diorites,
quartz monzonites and granites, whereas gabbros, pyroxenites and anorthosites
constitute smaller volumes.
•
• Magmatism was active in the Kohistan Batholith and the Ladakh Batholith during
the same period of time, from 105 mio. Years to 15 mio. years ago.
 Kalam Group
• The Kalam Group (Fig. 3.6) is perched on the Kohistan Arc as metasedimentary
sequence that represent remnants of the crust above the Arc.

• The type section of the Kalam Group is composed of quartzite, limestone and
slate and phyllites and mica schists.
 Dir Group
• The Dir Group (Fig. 3.6) underlies a belt of volcanic-sedimentary rocks 1,000 m to
1,200 m thick that enters Pakistan from eastern Afghanistan in Bajaur, District Dir,
and extends eastward to the Ushu Valley in upper Swat. It includes two mappable
units, the Baraul Banda Slate and the Utror Volcanics.
• Baraul Banda Slate have a faulted contact with the Shou Quartzite of the Kalam
Group. Intercalations of thin-bedded limestone have yielded Discocyclina and
Nummulites atacicous, indicating an Early Eocene age of the Baraul Banda Slate.
The Utror Volcanics consist of a sequence of andesites, dacites, rhyolites, tuffs
and agglomerates as much as 4 km to 5 km thick.
 Rakaposhi Volcanic Complex
• The Rakaposhi Volcanic Complex, which crops out north of the Kohistan Batholith, represents the
thick oceanic crust that was formed in the Tethys. It extends continuously from eastern
Afghanistan in the west to Baltistan and beyond in the east. Its outcrop belt is 3,000 m to 4,000 m
wide in its widest section in the Karakorum Kohistan, Ishkuman, Yasin Valleys and in Hunza area.
• Rakaposhi Volcanic Complex forms the Rakaposhi mountain (7,800 m) and thus displays the
highest outcrop of ophiolites in the world.
• The Complex consists of volcanic flows, metasediments and syn- to post-tectonic intrusions; all
these rock types are haphazardly intermingled. The volcanics consist of basalts, andesites, dacites
and rhyolites, with pillow-structures in the basalts.
• Tuffaceous beds are traceable along the entire length and consist of biotite schist, hornblende
schist, schistose amphibolites, hornblende-epidote schists and actinolite schists.
• The metasediments include slates, phyllites, phyllitic schists, quartzites, crystalline limestones and
marble.
• Ultramafic to acid intrusives include gabbros, diorites, pyroxenites, granodiorites and granites.
• Globotruncana sp. was found in the Complex, north of Shigar, and Thaninasteria matshushitai in
the Ghizar Valley indicate age of the Rakaposhi Volcanic Complex as Early Cretaceous.
 Yasin Group
• The Yasin Group constitutes the youngest remnants of the Tethys, located on the
northern edge of the Kohistan Arc in Chitral and Baltistan.
• Pre- to post-tectonic acid to basic igneous intrusions are common in the Yasin
Group. At Chitral, the Yasin Group consists of slates, phyllites, schists and marble.
The base of the Group is in sheared contact with the Rakaposhi Complex.
• The calcareous strata have yielded fossils of hippurites, corals and Orbitolina sp.
of Cretaceous age.
• In Baltistan, these rocks have been named Katzara Formation composed of shales,
siltstones, slates and phyllites, with intercalations of sandstones, considered
Cretaceous-Eocene in age.
 Main Karakorum Thrust Zone
• The Main Karakorum Thrust (MKT) Zone marks the contact between the Eurasian
Plate in the north and the Indo-Pakistan Plate in the south.
• The Zone is occupied by rocks of the Chalt ophiolitic melange composed of
andesite, basalt, serpentinite, and rare peridotite.
• The melange zone is exposed at many locations along the length of the MKT Zone
which extends eastwards to Khapalu (50 km east of Skardu) and beyond into the
Shyok Valley, India.
 Molasse deposits
• Molasse deposits accumulated in the Deosai-Ladakh domain of the
Kohistan Island Arc (Kailas Molasse, Ladakh Molasse), at the southern side
of the Ladakh Batholith.
• The molasse consists of poorly sorted conglomerates and sands of nearby
origin. The molasses resemble the Upper Siwaliks of Pliocene age.