Stratigraphy and Structural Events Around the Southern Margin of Peshawar Basin, Pakistan
Abstract
The Peshawar intermontane basin is superimposed on the fold-thrust belt at the southern margin of the Pakistan Himalayas. In the southern part of the basin the first Ordovician rocks were identified near Nowshera on the basis of discovery of trilobite trace fossils and consequently the Paleozoic stratigraphy of the area has been revised and modified. The Attock-Cherat Range forms the southern boundary of the Peshawar basin and includes rocks transitional between metasediments of Lesser Himalaya and foreland basin strata of Kala Chitta Range lo the south. The range is dominated by slate, less metamorphosed argillaceous and arenaceous strata and subordinate limestone of Precambrian to Paleozoic age. These rocks are unconformably overlain by a thin cover of Jurassic, Cretaceous?, Paleocene, Eocene and Miocene rocks. The structural events close to the Peshawar basin are recognized in pre-Paleocene, pre-Pliocene and late Quaternary times. The Peshawar basin formed as the Kala Chitta Range was faulted south on the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) pushing the Siwalik foreland basin still further south, Evidence for active tectonics is found in four left-stepping en-echelon pressure ridges formed within Peshawar basin parallel to its southern margin.
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