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

Paharpur Fm

Period: 
Permian

Age Interval: 
Late Permian


Province: 
Bangladesh NW

Type Locality and Naming

Carbonaceous unit, encountered in a drill hole at the Paharpur-Jamalganj coalfield of Naogaon District in the northwestern part of Bangladesh.


Lithology and Thickness

Coal and sandstone. The rocks of the formation (512 m) consist of grey, medium to very coarse (gritty) feldspathic sandstone with thin lens of dark grey shale and four coal beds of bituminous type. About 465 m thick. "The sandstones are relatively weathered, moderately soft and strongly kaolinized resulting in a white clay matrix throughout the formation (Wardell, 1999)."


Lithology Pattern: 
Coal


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Lies above the basement complex, or conformably on the Kuchma Fm

Upper contact

Unconformably lies below the basaltic Rajmahal Traps Fm

Regional extent

Precambrian platform region (NW Bangladesh). These Permian sediments (Kuchma-Paharpur) were deposited in the faulted basins of the Pre-Cambrian era and attained considerable thickness.


GeoJSON

{"type":"Feature","geometry":{"type":"MultiPolygon","coordinates":[[[[89.25,23.94],[90.18,24.9],[90.59,25.17],[89.87,25.3],[89.8,25.59],[88.95,25.6],[89.022,25.26],[88.48,25.22],[87.95,24.64],[89.25,23.94]]]]}}

Fossils


Age 

"The stratigraphic succession has been established partly by petrologic, paleontological and palynological studies and partly by stratigraphic and lithologic correlation with known areas. The formation has been correlated to the Late Permian age and considered to be equivalent to the Raniganj Stage of the Lower Gondwana Group of West Bengal, India." [Therefore, set here as coeval with coal-rich Raniganj Fm, which is lower half of Wuchiapingian Stage.]

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Wuchiapingian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
259.55

    Ending stage: 
Wuchiapingian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.5

    Ending date (Ma):  
256.89

Depositional setting

It was deposited in a broad shallow freshwater basin, the extent of which has been reduced by subsequent faulting and erosion. "Deposited in low-sinuosity braided fluvial systems

flanked by vegetated overbank and swampy floodplain areas."


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information

The fixed carbon of coal varies from 33% to 54% with an average of 47%, ash content varies from 10% to 60% with an average of 22.4%, volatile matter 30% to 40%.


Compiler:  

Largely copy-pasted from Banglapedia (National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh as compiled by several geologists; http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Geological_Group-Formation; 2015)

PLUS, quotes from Md. Alam et al. (2003, "An overview of the sedimentary geology of the Bengal Basin in relation to the regional tectonic framework and basin-fill history", Sedimentary Geology, 155: 179-208.)