Home Multi-Country Search About Admin Login
Cenozoic
Mesozoic
Paleozoic
Neoproterozoic
Mesoproterozoic
Paleoproterozoic

Search by
Select Region(s) to search
Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or Command (Mac) to select multiple
Dharamshala Gr
Click to display on map of the Ancient World at:
Dharamshala Gr base reconstruction

Dharamshala Gr

Period: 
Neogene

Age Interval: 
Early to Middle Miocene


Province: 
N.India Punjab Basin

Type Locality and Naming

The term Dharamshala was first proposed by Lahiri after the town of the same name in Kangra district to include the thick sequence of brackish and fresh water sediments immediately overlying the fossiliferous Subhathu Fm. This group is now much enlarged by ONGC geologist to include a large thick of sediments of post-Sibathu and pre-Siwalik age. Like Murree, Dharamshala is divided into two lithounits -Lower and Upper Dharamshala. The Upper Dharamsala Fm is more sandy than the Lower Dharamshala Fm.


Lithology and Thickness

Sandstone to claystone


Lithology Pattern: 
Sandy claystone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

The formation is underlain unconformable by Subathu Fm of late Paleocene to middle Eocene. The magnitude of hiatus is, however, not known definitely.

Upper contact

The Siwalik Gr overlie the Dharamsala Gr, the contact being always conformable Petrologically, the Upper Dharamshala Fm and Lower Siwalik Fm boundary is marked by an increase in the percentage of heavy minerals and appearance of staurolite in the assemblage.

Regional extent


GeoJSON

{"type":"Feature","geometry":{"type":"MultiPolygon","coordinates":[[[[75.8,32.43],[74.92,32.02],[74.53,31.72],[74.61,31.39],[74.57,31.09],[73.91,30.41],[73.87,30.03],[74.75,29.95],[75.23,29.57],[75.45,29.76],[75.89,29.72],[76.5,30.06],[76.94,30.48],[76.59,31.31],[76.15,31.39],[75.89,31.95],[75.49,32.17],[75.8,32.43]]]]}}

Fossils

Very few


Age 

For the onset -- Magnetic polarity stratigraphy across Udhampur Syncline suggests an age of 19.9 Ma +/-1.2 Ma for the outcropping base of the coeval Upper Muree (Rao, Prasad, Bhalla, 1993). Therefore, assumed base is beginning of Burdigalian pending better dating. For the termination – the magnetostratigraphy estimate of ca. 13.5 Ma for base of Siwalik Gr is conformably above.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Burdigalian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
20.45

    Ending stage: 
Serravallian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.5

    Ending date (Ma):  
12.72

Depositional setting

The Dharamsala represents diachronous deposition on the feather edge of the foreland basin. Depositional environments comprised of semi-arid meander plain with sediment source from the rising but still distant proto-Himalayas to the north in which direction the Dharamshala foreland basin center was located.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Modified from Ravi Misra (Ganga, Punjab and Purnea basins; Chap. 6; ONGC Bull 44, 2009)