Dungan Fm

Holotype section: Mehrab Tangi Gorge. Author: Williams, 1959. Reference section: None.

Synonym: Originally Dungan Limestone was proposed by R.D. Oldham in 1890

Limestone. The formation dominantly consists of nodular to massive limestone with subordinate shale, marl, sandstone and limestone conglomerate. At its type locality and elsewhere, particularly throughout Marri-Bugti Hills, Quetta region and Sulaiman Range, the lithology is exclusively limestone that is dark grey to brown and creamy white, weathering brown, grey and buff yellow. The dark blue grey, brown and olive shale, which weathers grey or green, however, becomes dominant in southern Sulaiman Range. Appreciable amounts of varicolored marl are also developed in the vicinity of the Kingri-Mekhtar and Bolan Pass areas of the Sulaiman Province, and the Karkh area of the Kirthar Province; in these areas (excluding Kingri-Mekhtar area) thick beds of limestone conglomerate occur which grade into nodular and massive limestone.

Thickness: 385-400 m. It is about 400 m thick at the type locality, 350 m thick in Kachhi Jhal section, 280 m in Khattan area, 200 m in Moghal Kot section and 386 m in Anagan Gat section near Ziarat.

It is highly fossiliferous. Foraminifera are abundant and the more common genera include Fasciolites, Nummulites, Coskinolina, Dictyoconoides, Discocyclina, Lindrina, Lockhartia, Operculina, Misellanea, Globorotalia, Cibicides etc.

It s believed to have been deposited along a broad open ramp to relatively deep water (>200 m) close to the shelf-break setting.