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Paro Formation

Paro Fm

Period: 
Cambrian, Ordovician

Age Interval: 
late Cambrian-early Ordovician?


Province: 
Bhutan

Type Locality and Naming

Tethyan Himalaya.


Lithology and Thickness

"1–2 km-thick packages of fine-grained, thin-medium bedded quartzite separated by 10 –200 m-thick marble bands that are mappable across the entire exposure" (McQuarrie et al. 2013).

From Long et al. (2011; Legend to Geological map of Bhutan): Lower unit – Muscovite-biotite-garnet-staurolite schist, with kyanite present within quartz veins. Quartzite interbeds become more common upsection. 600 m-thick (Tobgay et al., 2010). Middle unit – Gray to tan, thin-bedded, fine-grained, micaceous quartzite, interbedded with biotite-garnet-muscovite schist, rare calc-silicate rocks, and marble. Contact with schist of lower unit is gradational. Two white to gray, medium crystalline marble marker beds (m1, 10 m-thick; m2, 100-200 m-thick) are divided out. 2,000 m-thick total (Tobgay et al., 2010). Upper unit – Tan to gray, very coarse-grained, thin- to medium-bedded, cliff-forming, biotite-rich quartzite, interbedded with biotite-muscovite-garnet schist. Marble marker bed (m3; 250 m-thick) is divided out. 1,600 m-thick total (Tobgay et al., 2010).


Lithology Pattern: 
Clayey sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Unconformity onto Precambrian "Lower Greater Himalayan protoliths"

Upper contact

Uncertain – no details given (perhaps not exposed in mapped region?); but indicated that next younger regional unit would be either upper Pele La Gr, or Devonian-age Tang Chu Gr.

Regional extent

Uncertain; and perhaps later merged with Chekha Fm and early part of Pele La Gr?


GeoJSON

null

Fossils


Age 

Assumed equivalent to Chekha Fm and lower Pele La Gr (as shown on schematic column of Martin, 2017)

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Cambrian Stage 4

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
514.50

    Ending stage: 
Tremadocian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
486.85

Depositional setting


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Extract from Legend to "Geologic Map of Bhutan" (Long, S., McQuarrie, N., et al., 2011, Journal of Maps). Age spans estimated from correlation diagrams in Martin, A.J. (2017, "A review of Himalayan stratigraphy, magmatism, and structure", Gondwana Research, 49: 42-80; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2017.04.031), but these are often controversial.