Magmatism

From age of early Proterozoic to Quaternary, Pakistan contains good records of Magmatism and
all types of common igneous rocks have been recognised.In Pakistan most of igneous rock has
been divided into three major paleographic regimes.
(1) Late Mesozoic associated with hot spot and spreading
(2) Pre-Jurassic related to various rifting processes in the Gondwanaland and orogenic
crustal thinning.
(3) Cretaceous to Quaternary which related to convergent processes in the Tethys and at the
edge of the Asiatic continent.
Precambrian magmatic rocks of Pakistan are divided into two groups.
(1) Early Proterozoic granitic rocks with minor amphibolites in the Himalaya region which
are probably an extension of those of the Indian and Nepal Himalaya
(2) Late Proterozoic bimodal magmatic rocks in the northern Punjab and Southeastern Sindh

and latter extension of those of Rajasthan and the Ultrapotassic Volcanics in the Salt
Range. Several granitic plutons were emplaced in the Himalayan foothills during early
Paleozoic.
In the northern and western Pakistan the cretaceous-Tertiary period is marked by increase in
magmatic intrusions and outpouring of volcanic material. The origin of this Magmatism is
mostly closer to the Neo-Tethys and ultimate collision of India with Asiaand this result
(1) Subdcution releated magmatism in island arcs, continental margins and possibly marginal
basin
(2) Obduction of several ophilotic complexes onto the Indian plate.

Late Archean to Early Proterozoic

In Nanga Parbat-Haramosh Massif (NPHM) ,Besham area in northern Pakistan igneous rocks of
Late Archean to early Proterozoic have been recently reported and Kaghan area contains
Proterozoic rocks which may be coeval with these. There is also possibility about Koh-i-Sufaid
crystalline in Kurram and Tirah may be this age.
Naga Parbat-Haramosh Massif
According to (Wadia 1933) the N-S extending NPHM was considering as a promontory and by
(Madin et al 1989) its the edge of west-facing embayment of the Indian plate. The northern part
of Indian plate at NMPH is controlled is by an anticlinal fold structure (Coward et ali.1988).The
unroofing rapid rise is massif accommodated initially along ductile shears and subsequently by
cataclastic by faulting along with Shahbatot strike-slip zone. The northern part of the massif
forms N-S trending antiform.
Naga Parbat-Haramosh Massif (NPHM) is a half window of high grade Precambrian basement
gneisses that have been overprinted by Himalayan metamorphism.Terloar et al.(1991) has been
discuss the correlation of deformation histories with Hazara area.Ahmad and Shams (1979)
reported that massif is made up of magmatic gneisses with interwoven micaceous folia and
gneisses consists of two feldspar, quartz ,biotite,muscovite.chlorite.Kyanite and staurolite of
metamorphic origin. Rock of the northwest part of the massif is divided into three units by
Madin et al.(1989).
-Shengus Gneiss
-Iskere Gneiss
-Structurally high Haramosh schist unit.
Very young granitic rocks of Pliocene-Pleistocence age reported from the NPHM and they are
related to very rapid uplift and denudation which are accelerated over the past 10 m.y to
maximum 7 mm/year (Zeitler et al.1993).

Besham antiform

In Besham area to the south of the Indus suture a window of early Proterozoic basement which is
bounded by the steep N-trending faults both on its eastern and western side is exposed. The
detailed geochemistry, petrography has described by La Fortune et al.(1992) of Besham area and
divided rocks into five groups from oldest to youngest.
(1) Besham group which consist of metasediments, quartzo-feldsphatic gneisses and sodic
quartzo-feldspathic gneisses formed in situ which forms variable composition of
sedimentary protolith and all these form the basement sequence.
(2) Mafic dykes which form the lenses and concordant layers which is less than 2m in width.
Metamorphosed to epidote-bearing amphibolites, these are tholeiitic and have island arc
geochemical affinities.
(3) The third group of rock consists of cogenetic,small granitic intrusion and associated
pegmatites. The rocks of this group is younger than Besham group and older than Karora
group .
(4) The conglomerate, calcareous and carbonaceous metasediments of Karora group, which
form the cover sequence and for more than one metamorphic event in area provide
evidence.
(5) Undeformed leucogranites intrude both the Karora group and the Besham group in two
places in the form of small sills, up to 25 m thickness. They made up of
oligoclase,quartz,microcline,biotite and sphene which are medium to equigranular.
For some rocks of the Besham group radiometric ages have been determined. According to
Treloar et al.(1989c) Ar-Ar age of 1,920 24 Ma on hornblende from an amphibolites sheet
or pod within a granitic body near Duber.Aditional Ar-Ar ages determined by Baig (199) has
interpreted as suggestive of one or more metamorphic episodes in the range of 2,031 6 to
1,865 3 Ma. They also report that sodic gneisses were emplaced about 1,500 Ma ago.
Kaghan area

Precambrian basement of the Kaghan Valley and adjacent are of Azad Kashmir has been
studied by most of the researchers like Ghazanfar, Greco and Spencer 1993.Chanduray and
Ghazanfar (1987)divided the Kaghan basement into
(1) Archean to Proterozoic Sharda group
(2) Proterozoic Kaghan group
According to Greco (1991) Kaghan group is referred as the lesser Himalaya Salkhala
formation, occur

in a band around the Hazara-Kashmir Syntaxis and consist of

unfossiliferous mica schists ,calcareous rocks with marble ,siliceous rocks and amphibolites.
Sharda group of consist of predominantly of garnetiferous cal-pelites and marbles with
subordinates pasmmitic,peltic and concordant amphibolitic bands metamorphosed up to
sillimanite grade. East Kaghan is entirely occupied by the Sharda group. According to Greco
and Spencer(1993) this group of rocks represents a Higher Himalayan crystalline nappe
comprising a basement of Cambrian ,older granites overlain by the lower Paleozoic and a
cover

of

Paleozoic

and

Mesozoic

metasediments.

On

field

and

petrographic

grounds,chaudhry (1987)and Ghazanfar concluded that the granitic rocks are S-type ,derived
from the associated metasediments by the partial melting and no radiometric dates are
available to compare the granites with those of the neighbouring area, but they may belong to
Proterozoic ,Cambrian and Himalayan(Tertiary).
Koh-i-Sufaid
In the gently flexuring Parachinar re-entrant a basement of early Proterozoic rocks occurs
and basement is truncated on its north by the Indus suture and its west by the Chaman
Transform Fault. According to Meissner et al.(1975) most of the basement occurs across the
border of Afghanistan but its southern margin which is thrust over the Mesozoic sedimentary
rocks occurs as a thin strip in Kurram and Tirah. According to butt the basement is an
imbricate zone containg NW-trending ,NE-dipping high angle reverse faults which separates
various rocks units and rocks in the adjoining fault blocks show the extreme variations form
augen gneisses and migmatites displaying ductile deformation to amphibolites ,schist,
phyllites and dolomites some of which show brittle deformation.

According to Badshah and (1983a) and Ahmed (1985a) the basement consists of prePaleozoic migmatites,gneisses.schist,calcareous rocks and amphibolites.Biotites gneisses of
granitic to granodiorite composition and showing various deformation textures are most
common rocks. Minor bodies of amphibolites are closely associated with the gneisses ,but
the amphibolites may be of two generation
(1) Precambrian and

(2) Permian rift-related

Basement also consist of younger group of fine-to-medium grained ,porphyritic to nonporphyritic granites and granodiorites which are commonly sheared and occur in small
bodies.
Late Proterozoic
Stratigraphic sequence of salt range contains thin flows of an Ultrapotassic rock in its
base.Khewra trap which occur in the top of the very late Proterozoic or Eocambrain rocks
consisting of marly anhydrites, gypsum and oil shales overlying evaporates. Trap occur
throughout the salt range .Drill core at Dulmial which is located 20 km NE of the khewra
,shows

the

two zones

of mostly

altered

trap

separated

by 23.8m of rock

salt,dolomite,anhydrites and bitumen(Faruqi 1986) The trap is purple to reddish brown

,orange to buff, rarely dark green rock. It is very fine grained, porphyritic and vesicular to
amygdaloidal. According to (Jan and Faruqi 1995) Preliminary geochemistry shows that the
rocks are made up of 60 wt% Sio2,0.7%Tio2,11% Al2o3,9%K2O and 0.04%P2O5.Mosebach
give name it Khewraite in (1954) and rock of the same texture, mineralogy and compositions
have not been reported from the elsewhere in the region indeed the trap is so unique. The salt
range rocks and Ultrapotassic rocks are closely associated in space and time ,and it is
tempting to relate them also to rifting.
Cambrian Ordovician
According to Le fort et al.(1980)The lesser Himalaya granitic plutons of the lower
Ordovician and Cambrian age occurs in a belt from Kathmandu to the Indus covers 1,600 km
area. The Manshera Plutons with well defined whole rocks Rb-Sr isochron age of 516 16
Ma is an extension of this belt in Pakistan. Similar granitic rocks occur in the other parts of

Himalaya of Pakistan like Sawat,Besham and Azad Kashmir. These granitic rocks are
characterize by a strong gneisses fabric and generally porphyritic aspects ,with feldspar
megacrysts up to 15 cm long.
Manshera Granites
It covers about more than 2,000 km area and these granites have been studied in details by
the Shams and associates in (1961a,1966,1969,1980).According to Calkins they constitute a
sheet tightly folded along with country rocks and ranges from granite and granodiorites ,arc
calac-alkaline in chemistry and composed of quartz ,albite-oligoclase ,K-feldspar and also
some quantity of garnet. Shams(1969) classified the rocks into Susalgali gneisses Manshera
porphyritic granite

and andalusite granite and associated minor bodies of pegmatites

,aplites,albites and granites porphyrites .Weak porphyritic tourmaline granite with

albite,microcline,garnet,intruding schists on its western margins is considered by the Shams
(1969) to be a younger derivatives. The Largest outcrop of this type covers 20km area and
occurrence of cordierite ,silimanite and andalusite in the granites on one hand and off garnet
on the others ,coupled with staurolite and kyanite in the nearby rocks is interesting.
According to Jan et al.(1981b) it is not clear whether the granites have passed through an
earlier episode of low -Pressure metamorphism or the minerals cordierite ,andalusite and
Silimanite are the result of contamination contact metamorphism.
Swat Granitic Gneisses
Martin et al (1962) briefly describe these rocks are very similar to those of Mansehra and
their 515 Ma Ar-Ar biotite age confirms that the two are of the same age. its also appear to
emplaced in a sheet and tightly folded like those of Mansehra.Gelogical map prepared by the
DiPietro et al which show that eastern bodies of these granites pass into those of Mansehra
across Indus. They are composed of quartz, two feldspars, two micas, opaques,epidote and
according to shams plot in the quartz rich granitoid filed with two pronged extension
towards granite and quartz monzonite field. A younger tourmaline bearing granite is a
minor marginal variant of the Swat granitic gneisses. The biotite gneisses at Chakdarra, north
of Malakand ,were considered to be the extension of the swat granitic gneisses. The genisses

shows a tectonics fabrics and probably an extension of those of swat while the Malakand
granite is undeformed and possibly belongs to the alkaline province.
Granitic rocks of the Lower Swat is divided into
(1) Porphyritic calc-alkaline granodiorite gneisses with white microcline megacrysts
(2) Equigranular to Porphyritic biotite of probable alkaline affinity and displaying of local
rapakivi texture
(3) Equigranular ,subsolvus, tourmaline-muscovite granites.
Nanga Parbat and Besham
The two mica Shingus Gneisses in the Nanga Parbat Massif is a fine grained ,finely laminated
unit comprising a range of lithologies. It has a U-Pb zircon age of 400-500 Ma, and is considered
as a metamorphic equivalent of the Mansehra granite. There are small granitic intrusion of
Cambrian age in early Proterozoic basement in Besham area. Shang and Duber bodies of these
associated with pegmatites and these are coarse grained ,with up to a centimeter long feldspar
phenocrysts,deformed and locally banded. And these ranges from granodiorite to adamellite and
consist of K-feldspar, quartz,medium plagioclase ,hornblende, opaque oxide ,zircon and local
garnet. In the north of Duber has an Ar-Ar biotite age of 550 20 Ma of the granite.
Western Karakoram
According to Le fort et al (1994) reported that pre-Ordovician granitoids occurring in the north
of the Karakoram Axial Batholith in the upper Yarkhun Valley in Chitral. The principle plutons at
Ishkarwaz is an altered and deformed biotite-hornblende adamellite, forming an alumino-cafemic
associations with calc-alkaline affinity. It intrude low grade quartzite and migmatites and is
covered transgressively by fossiliferous litharenite and slate of early and slate of early
Ordovician age.
The Ishkarwaz granite has low Mg/(Mg+Fe) ratio and resembles closely the darkest member of
the Bumburet Pluton of Kafiristan in western Chitral. This area also contains a variety of
pegmatites but their relation to early Paleozoic granites in the Karkoram range suggests that the
Karkoram plate is Gondwanic in origin.