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
Gugaldhar Formation
Click to display on map of the Ancient World at:
Gugaldhar Fm base reconstruction

Gugaldhar Fm

Period: 
Silurian

Age Interval: 
latest Ordovician?-early Silurian


Province: 
NW Himalaya Kashmir Basin

Type Locality and Naming

The type location is along the ridge Gugaldhar. [Original Publication: Bhargava, O.N. 2008. Palaeozoic succession of Indian Plate. Memoir Geological Society of India, 74: 209-244.]

Synonyms: Rishkobal B of Srikantia and Bhargava, 1983; and maybe upper part of Margan Shale Fm (Shah, 1972).


Lithology and Thickness

Sandstone with bioherms. This formation is 200-300 m and made up of pale white, gray, locally purplish, cross-bedded quartz arenite, calcareous shale, calcareous sandstone and hard limestone beds, showing coral-algal buildups.


Lithology Pattern: 
Sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably overlies the Hallamulla Fm.

Upper contact

It’s upper contact with the Muth Fm Quartzite is sharp, marking a disconformity along which Late Silurian is missing.

Regional extent

Equivalent of the Takche Fm of Spiti.


GeoJSON

{"type":"Feature","geometry":{"type":"MultiPolygon","coordinates":[[[[76.46,33.21],[75.58,34.05],[74.97,34.3],[74.17,34.3],[74.09,33.87],[74.39,33.24],[75.71,32.87],[76.46,33.21]]]]}}

Fossils

Coral: Lindstroemia cf. L. bina, Alveolites sp. Brachiopods: several species of Orthis, Leptaena rhomboidalis, several species of Strophomena spp., Atrypa sp., Orthoceras, Cyrtoceras, Trilobite: Calymene, Acidaspis, Illaenus sp., Triplecia insularis and Plectmonites sp.


Age 

Ashgill-Llandovery. Reed (1912) assigned an Early Silurian (Llandovery) age to the fauna of the Gugaldhar Formation. Boucot and Gauri (1968) advocated a probable Ashgill-Llandovery slot. Similar age for its equivalent Takche Fm has been concluded on the basis of conodonts, hence seems reliable (Bhargava, 2008). [Ashgill = late Ordovician; Llandovery = early Silurian]

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Rhuddanian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
443.07

    Ending stage: 
Telychian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
432.93

Depositional setting

The bedding features include hummocky cross-bedding and low-angled cross-bedding. The Gugaldhar Formation represents subtidal to intertidal environment with local carbonate buildups (Bhargava, 2008; Srikantia and Bhargava, 1983).


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

O.N. Bhargava & Birendra Singh