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

Shirinab Fm


Period: 
Triassic, Jurassic

Age Interval: 
Early Jurassic (Pre-Toarcian); maybe into late Triassic


Province: 
Pakistan Axial Belt

Type Locality and Naming

Holotype section: Shirinab River section. Author: Hunting Survey Corporation, 1960. Reference section: None.


Lithology and Thickness

Limestone. In the type area, the formation consists of limestone with subordinate marl and shale. The limestone is thin- to thick-bedded, grey to dark grey, ash grey, weathers rusty brown to brownish grey, mottled, sub-lithographic, micritic to biomicritic with shelly, oolitic, peletic and pisolitic interbeds. It is also crinoidal, platy, flaggy, dolomitized and argillaceous at places. Coquina beds are common. The marl is greenish grey and nodular. The shale dominates the upper part and is buff, maroon, greenish grey to brown, calcareous, and ranges from soft flaky to hard fissile.

Thickness: 230- >1,000 m More than 1,000 m in the Kallat section, and 230 m (measured, base not exposed) in the Gurruk-Ziarat section.


Lithology Pattern: 
Limestone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably underlain by Malikhore Fm [Note by J.Ogg – this "underlain" is difficult to reconcile with the indicated age-spans of the Shrianab as "pre-Toarcian down to perhaps latest Triassic" and of the Malikhore which is " Early Jurassic"; so perhaps are coeval and facies-migration?]

Upper contact

Conformably overlain by Sembar Fm (transitional), except in type locality where Goru Fm disconformably overlies it with a laterite bed in between. [Note by J.Ogg – Sembar is Early Cretaceous, therefore also difficult to reconcile with the indicated age-spans of the Shrianab as "pre-Toarcian down to perhaps latest Triassic" and of the Malikhore which is " Early Jurassic"; so perhaps are coeval and facies-migration?]

Regional extent

The formation is exposed in the Kallat, Quetta, Zhob and Loralai districts of Balochistan.


GeoJSON

{"type":"Feature","geometry":{"type":"MultiPolygon","coordinates":[[[[67.03,24.87],[66.04,25.61],[66.09,28.57],[67.1,30.57],[69.17,30.95],[69.76,33.06],[70.05,32.94],[69.54,30.45],[67.49,30.41],[66.19,28.13],[67.03,24.87]]]]}}

Fossils

Rhynchonella sp., Terebratula sp., and bryozoans.


Age 

Early Jurassic (Pre-Toarcian). Keeping in view the enormous thickness of the formation, it is believed that it may extend into the Triassic.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Rhaetian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.5

    Beginning date (Ma): 
203.55

    Ending stage: 
Pliensbachian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
184.20

Depositional setting


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Nusrat K. Siddiqui