Active faulting in the southern Peshawar basin, Pakistan
Abstract
Evidence for active faulting is found in the Peshawar basin parallel to its southern margin. The faults run along four left stepping ridges that diagonally cut across imbricate thrust structures of the Attock-Cherat Range. The unlithified sediments of the Peshawar basin comprising of lacustrine, fluvial, and alluvial-fan deposits dated at 2.8 to 0.6 Ma and the younger alluvial-fan gravels are strongly folded, faulted, and are cut by east-north east trending faults with their north sides up thrown. The faults postdate some of the fan drainage but defects other drainage. The en-echelon distribution of the ridges and low-angle slickensides in some faults indicate that the faults may be strike-slip. The faults extend 40 km in east-northeast direction to the Tarbela Dam area where the base of Indus River gravels is apparently displaced by a reverse faults with northwest side up. Additional lineations and south facing scarps occur at the southern side of the Attock-Cherat Range where Jurassic limestone is faulted over gravels material.
References
Burbank, D.W., 1982. The chronologic and stratigraphic development of the Kashmir and Peshawar intermontane basins, northwestern Himalaya (Ph.D thesis); Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, 291 p. 1983, Multiple episodes of catastrophic flooding in the Peshawar basin during the past 700,000 years. Geol. Bull. Univ. of Peshawar, 16, 143-149.
Burbank, D.W., and Raynolds, R.G.H., 1988. Stratigraphic keys to the timing of deformation; In example from the northwestern Himalayan foredeep, in Paola, C., and Kleinspehn, eds., New perspectives in basin analysis: New York, Springer-Verlag, p. 331-351.
Burbank, D.W., and Tahirkheli, R.A.K., 1985. The magnetostratigraphy, fission track dating, and stratigraphic evolution of the Peshawar intermontane basin, northern Pakistan. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 96, 539-552.
Burbank, D.W., Raynolds, R.G.H., and Johnson, G.D., 1988. Later Cenozoic tectonics and sedimentation in the northwestern Himalayan foredeep; II, Eastern limb of the Northwest Syntaxis and regional synthesis, in Allen, P.A., and Homewood, eds., Foreland basins: International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication (in press).
Calkins, J.A., Offield, T.W., Abdullah, S.K.M., and Ali, S.T., 1975. Geology of the southern Himalaya in Hazara, Pakistan and adjacent areas: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 716-C, p. 1-29.
Hussain, A., 1984. Regional geological map of Nizampur covering parts of Peshawar, Mardan and Attack Districts, Pakistan: Geological Survey of Pakistan Geological Map Series no. 14, scale
Hussain, A., Yeats, R.S., and Pogue, K, 1988. Geologic map of Attock-Cherat Range and adjoining areas, N.W.F.P. and Punjab, Pakistan: Geological Survey of Pakistan Geological Map Series, scale (in press).
Khan. M.J., Opdyke, N.D., and Tahirkheli, R.A.K., 1988. Magnetic stratigraphy of the Siwalik Group, Bhittanii Marwat and Khasor Ranges, northwestern Pakistan and the timing of Neogene tectonics of the Trans Indus: Journal of Geophysical Research, v, 93, p. 11, 773-11, 790.
Maluski, H., and Matte, P., 1984. Ages of Alpine tectono-metamorphic events in the northwestern Himalaya (northern Pakistan) by method. Tectonics, 3, 1-18.
Meissner, C.R., Master, J.M., Rashid, M.A. and Hussain, M., 1974. Stratigraphy of the Kohat Quadrangle, Pakistan: US Geological Survey Professional Paper 716-D, 30 p.
Nakita, T., Iwata, S., Yamanaka, H., Yagim H., and Maemoku, H., 1984. Tectonic landforms of several active faults in the western Nepal Himalayas. Journal of the Nepal Geological Society, 4, 177-199.
Pogue, K., and Hussain, A., 1986. New light on the stratigraphy of Nowshera area and the discovery of Early to Middle Ordovician trace fossils in N.W.F.P., Pakistan: Geological Survey of Pakistan Information Release no. 135, 15 p.
Raynolds, R.G.H. and Johnson, G.D., 1985. Rates of Neogene depositional and deformational processes, northwest Himalayan foredeep margin, Pakistan, in Snelling, N.J., ed., The chronology of the geological record. Geological Survey of London Memoir 10, 297-311.
Said, M., and Majid, M., 1977. The Pleistocene history of the terrestrial deposits of Bare Daman area, Peshawar Valley. Pakistan Journal of Science and Technology, l, 39-47.
Seeber, L, Armbruster, J.G., and Quittmeyer, R., 1981. Seismicity and continental subduction in the Himalayan arc, in Gupta, H. K., and Delany, eds., Zagros, Hindu Kush, Himalaya geodynamic evolution. American Geophysical Union Geodynamic Series, 3, 215-242.
Stauffer, K.W., 1968. Silurian-Devonian reef complex near Nowshera, West Pakistan. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 79, 1331-1350.
Tahirkheli, R.A.K., 1970. The geology of the Attock-Cherat Range, West Pakistan. University of Peshawar Geological Bulletin, 5, 1-26.
Tahirkheli, R.A.K., 1971. The geology of the Gandghar Range, Distt. Hazara, N.W.F.P. University of Peshawar Geological Bulletin, 6, 33-42.
Yeats, R.S., and Hussain, A., 1987. Timing of structural events in the Himalayan foothills of northwestern Pakistan. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 99, 161-176.
Yeats, R.S., and Hussain A., 1989. Zone of late quaternary deformation in the southern Peshawar Basin, Pakistan. Geological Society of America Bulletin Special Paper 323, 265-274.
Yeats, R.S., Khan, S.H„ and Akhtar, M., 1984. Later Quaternary deformation of the Salt Range of Pakistan. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 95, 958-966.
