Geology of Nowshera Reef Complex, Nowshera, KP, Pakistan

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.