Abstract:
The first Paleozoic reef belt on the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent is located near Nowshera
(latitude 34°00′ N, longitude 72°00′ E) in northern West Pakistan. It consists of nine
distinct hills that form a 15-mile-long east-west band rising from the Peshawar alluvial
plain. Each hill is composed of one or more reef cores ranging in thickness from less
than 100 feet to more than 700 feet. The reef cores are separated by thin, relatively
unfossiliferous carbonate rocks. The reef belt contains fauna that is completely new to
Pakistan and has been dated from the Early Devonian to the Late Silurian (Ludlovian
to Gedinnian).
The entire belt unconformably overlies the Kandar Phyllite and is divisible into four
definite units:
Carbonate Rocks
Reef Core
Reef Breccia
The Misri Banda Quartzite
Nowshera reef complex experienced different phenomenon including dolomitization,
micritization, recrystallization and neomorphism.
