Synopsis

Sedimentology and Diagenesis of the Early Eocene Sakesar

Limestone, Western Salt Range, Sub-Himalayas, Pakistan.

MS GEOLOGY

BY

NAVEED REHMAN

(PGLF18M005)

Under the Supervision of

Dr. MUHAMMAD KASHIF

A thesis submitted to the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Sargodha

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
(MS) in Geology.

DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES

UNIVERSITY OF SARGODHA, SARGODHA-PAKISTAN
SESSION 2018-2020
Introduction:
The Present study is focus on the sedimentology and Diagensis of the Early Eocene
Sakesar Limestone Western Salt Range (Nammal Gorge andKasanwala Area section)to elaborate
its microfacies and diagenetic settings. The Eocene Succession of Nammal Gorgesection consists
of the Nammal Formation and Sakesar Limestone and is considered to be deposited in shallow
water neritic environments. The Sakesar Limestone is a recognized as the most prominent
stratigraphic unit in the Upper Indus Basin of Pakistan. It is integral part of the Western Salt
Range and the Surghar Ranges. In The Salt Range its thickness varies between 70m and 150m.It
is 220m at Chichali Pass and about 300m in other part of the Surghar Range. Its Thickness is
36m in the Kasanwala Area Section, (Mirza et al, 2018).The Sakesar Formation consists
dominantly of limestone with subordinate marl. The limestone throughout its extent is cream
colored to light grey and nodular while marl is cream colored and forms a persistent horizon near
the top.
The Sakesar Limestone was deposited during the Early Eocene times in the Salt Range
region of Tethyan realm (Ghazi et al, 2006). Their lower contact with Nammal Formation is
confirmable. In the Eastern salt range the upper contact with the Chorgali Formation is
confirmable while in Central and Western Salt Range and in the Surghar Ranges the Rawalpindi
group or Siwalik group unconformably overlies it.
The proposed study area has exposed stratigraphy ranges The Upper Permian, Mesozoic
and Cenozoic rocks are well exposed in the Nammal Gorge (Afzal, 2004). The oldest exposed
rocks belong to the Permian Zaluch Group that consists of Wargal Limestone and Chhidru
Formations respectively. The overlying Triassic Musakhel Group comprising of the Mianwali
Formation, Tredian Formation and the Kingriali Dolomite (Shah, 2009). The boundary between
the Permian and Triassic is a Paraconformity (Kummel and Teichert, 1970). A thick sequence of
the Jurassic Surghar Group consisting of the Datta and Samana Suk formations overlies the
Musakhel Group. The Cretaceous succession is missing while the Paleocene succession
unconformably overlies the Surghar Group. The Makarwal Group comprises of the Hangu
Formation, Lockhart Limestone and the Patala Formation. The Eocene succession includes the
Chharat Group that consists of the Nammal Formation and Sakesar Limestone.
 The problem we will facesduring this research work is to identified well preserved
section of the formation due to vegetation covered for the thin section analysis and to evaluate
its digenetic phases like early and late phase giagenesis through XRD, CL and SEM techniques.
Study Area
The study Area is located in the Nammal Gorge and in the Kasanwala Area Section
(Western Salt Range). The Nammal Gorge section is located in the Western Salt Range near
Nammal Lake and lies in Mianwali District; Punjab (Fig. 1). The Kasanwala Area Section is
situated at 53.3km North East of Mianwali near Dhurnaka Village. These sections were selected
for this study because of good and accessible Eocene rock exposures.The study areas is located
at the latitude of 32°39'25.5"N and 32°38'39"N, Longitude of 71°47'49.6" and 71°50'23" E
respectively. The area is easily accessible from Islamabad through M-1 linked with Mianwali-
Talagang road.

Fig.1:Geological map of the Salt Range and adjoining areas showing the study area, (Modified
after Jan and Stephenson, 2011).
Regional Tectonic Setting
Tectonically the study area isthe part of Salt Range Thrust (SRT). About 70 km south of
the main Himalayan Ranges, the Salt Range rises as a 180-km-long and 85-km-wide ridge of
hills at the southern edge of the Potwar Basin, Pakistan. It is widest in its central part, between
the Khewra and the Warchha (Fig. 1), where it also contains the best exposures of Paleozoic and
Eocambrian sequences (Ghazi et al 2014). The name Salt Range was first used by Elphinston, a
British envoy to the court of the Kabul. He visited this territory (1808–1815) and noticed the
extraction of salt from the Salt Range. Hence, historically, the Salt Range derives its name after
the occurrence of gigantic deposits of rock salt embedded in the Precambrian bright red marls
that are stratigraphically known as the Salt Range Formation. Apart from the easily available
roadside geology, here are some prominent gorges cutting the Salt Range. Among these gorges,
the most famous are Khewra, Nilawahan, Warchha, Nammal, and Chichali gorges, which
provide the best locations to study these sedimentary successions.
The Salt Range contains wealth of geological features, for which it has been rightly
called as the “Field Museum of Geology. “In fact, it represents an open book of geology, where
the richly fossiliferous stratified rocks such as the Permian carbonate succession contains
brachiopod fauna with recently established conodont biostratigraphy (Wardlaw and Mei 1999)
and foraminifera biostratigraphy (Mertmann2000). The Salt Range represents a longitudinal east-
west trough, bounded on the east by the Jhelum River and on the west by the River Indus,
between 32°15′–33°0′N and 71°34′–73°45′E. Beyond the River Indus, it takes a hairpin bend to
develop a north-south trend. The east-west extension is the Salt Range, while the north-south
segment is the Trans Indus Salt Range. It is arcuate and convex to the south with a general east-
west trend but turns to the north-west near the western end and to the north-east near the eastern
end. The average elevation of the Salt Range is about 800 m, and the highest peak, Mount
Sakesar (32°32′N, 71°56′E), is 1,570m high. The upper part of the scarp exposes Permian or
Eocene Limestone, or Tertiary Sandstones. The Potwar Basin, with an average altitude of 500 m,
is bounded on the south by the SaltRange and on the north by the Kala Chitta Hills.
Structurally the Salt Range is the results of tectonic forces imposed during the later
phases of the Himalayan orogeny in late Cenozoic time. The occurrence of the thick,
incompetent Salt Range Formation at the base of the sedimentary sequence has strongly
influenced on the structures (Gee, 1989). The Salt Range is a complex Salt anticlinorium within
which the Salt Range Formation is tectonically repeated by Cenozoic subsurface flow to attain a
thickness of more than 2,000 m in some anticlines. The Salt Range anticlinorium is actually a
series of Salt anticlines of the “Salt Pillow” type (Trusheim, 1960) in which the saline sequence
has not penetrated the overlying non-saltiferous formations, but diaperism has been a major
factor at a few localities namely Kalla Kahar, Vasnal, and strikingly at Mari Indus and Kalabagh
near the Indus.
LiteratureReview:
Extensive works have been done in the Nammal Gorge and Kasanwal Section area by
some national and international researchers form 19th century and still continuing. Rocks present
at the studied section are ranging in age from Upper Permian to Eocene and it has the best
exposures of Eocene age limestone that has been the point of interest for the researchers working
on the material for civil construction works and for Petroleum Industries.
Microfacies Analysis and Resrvoir Potential of Sakesar Limestone, Nammal Gorge
(Western Salt Range), Upper Indus Basin by Zain Ur Rahman, Zawar Muhammad Khan,
Zeeshan Khattak, Muhammad Azam Abbas and Muhammad Ishfaque, Pakistan Journal of
Geology(PJG) 1(1) (2017) 12-17, Integrated microfacies analysis of Lower Paleogene carbonate
rocks of Kasanwala area, Western Salt Range, North Western Himalayas, Pakistan by Kamran
Mirza, Mian Sohail Akram, Danish Khan, Khizar Khalil ur Rehman Lodhi, Muhammad
Zeeshan, Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES) Vol. 13, No. 4, p. 1-15,
2018, Sedimentology and Reservoir Potential of the Lower Eocene Sakesar Limestone of Dandot
Area, Eastern Salt Range, District Chakwal, Pakistan by Nazir Ahmad, Naveed Ahsan, Sahib
Jamil Sameeni, Muhamad Armaghan Faisal Mirag and Babar Khan ,Sci.Int.(Lahore),25(3),521-
529,2013. Micro Paleontological Analysis of the Early Eocene Sakesar Limestone, Central Salt
Range,Pakistan by S. Ghazi, S. Sharif, T. Hanif, S. Ahmad, T. Aziz and M. Riaz,Pakistan,
Journal of Science June 30, 2015. An overview of tectonosedimentary framework of the Salt
Range, North Western Himalayan fold and thrust belt, Pakistan by Shahid Ghazi, Syed Haroon
Ali, Mohammad Sahraeyan and Tanzila Hanif, Arab J GeosciDOI 10.1007/s12517-014-1284-3.
Aims and Objectives:
The present study is aimed to achieve the following Sedimentological, Economical and
Stratigraphical goals.
  To determine the nature, origin and characteristic of the Sakesar Limestone in the
Western Salt Rang.
 Identify lithofacies,Micro faciesand Sedimentary facies based on lithology, Sedimentary
structure, and thin section analysis.
 Interpret the depositional environmentof the formation on the basis of lithology,
lithofacies analysis, petrography, presence of fossils and field studies.
 To establish vertical and lateral stratigraphic relationship of the Sakesar Limestone.
 To Study a number of diagenetic phases such as early phase diagenesis like, compaction,
cementation,bioturbationand later phase diagenesis likedolomitizationand neomorphism.
These diagenetic events altered the original depositional fabric of the rock and influenced
itsreservoir characteristics.
 To evaluate the economic prospects of the formation.

Plan of Work and Methodology:

To achieve the aim of this study, the following works are conducted.
 Themeasuring tape was used to measure the exposed thickness of theFormation.
 Detailed field study of the outcrops to get a general view of the distribution, lithological
changes in addition to vertical and lateral facies change and indication of most suitable
section for sampling.
 Study of about 40 thin sections of the collected samples of all the outcrops of the area
and description of the sections.
 Thin section study under binocular and polarizer microscope for defferention of the
constituents and photographing the most useful samples.
 Calculating the percentage of the constituents( Allochems, Matrix and Cements) for
identification of facies and rock types and based on such data the limestone were
classified using the classification schemes of Dunham(1962) and Folk(1959).The
identified standard microfacies were compared with microfacies classification scheme of
Flugel (2004) to find the depositional environment of the Sakesar Limestone.
 The samples were digested by dilute hydrochloric acid from fresh outcrop for identifying
insoluble residue.
  X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) is used for identification of fine-grained minerals such
as mixed layer clays and other carbonate minerals in the formation that are difficult to
determine optically.
 Scanning electron microscope is used toyield multiple types of information aboutthe
sample of the formation at the same time such as compositional differences, Presence of
Calcite minerals, pore size determinationand crystal structure features.
Table No 1: Plan of Work
S. Time in Months
Activities
No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1 Literature Review.
Exploration and collection
2
of field data.
Preparing stratigraphic and
3 other relevant maps of the
study area.
Samples collections for
4
petrography.
5 Thin section preparation.
Thin section study through
6 Polarizer microscope, XRD
and SEM.
Interpret the results and
7
thesis writing.
8 Thesis submission.

References:
Shah, S. M. I. (1977). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan. Mem; 12, 138p.
Boustani, M. and A. M. Khawaja (1997). Microfacies studies of the Sakesar Limestone Central
Salt Range, Pakistan. Geol.Bull. Pesh. Uni, 30: 131- 142.
Ghazi, S., A. A. But, and M. Asharf (2006). Microfacies analysis and diagenesis of the Lower
Eocene Sakesar Limestone, Nilawahan Gorge, Central Salt Range, Pakistan. J. Nepal Geol. Soc.,
33: 23-32. Sameeni, S.J., Butt, A.A., 1997. Foraminifera from the Lower Eocene Sakaser
Limestone of Nammal area, Western Salt Range, Northern Pakistan. Journal of Nepal Geological
Society, 15: 9-14.
Davies, L.M. The Eocene Beds of the Punjab Salt Range, Indian Geol. Surv. Mem. New Series.
24, 1-79,
(1937).
Ahmad, S., Zia, S., Hanif, M., Kamran, A., 2014. Microfacies, diagenesis and reservoir
characterization of Sakesar Limestone Salt Range, Pakistan. Earth Sciences Pakistan, 29-31
August, 2014.
Ahmed, N., Sameeni, S.J., Ahsan, N., 2013. Sedimentology and Reservoir Potential of the
Lower Eocene Sakesar Formation of Dandot Area, Eastern Salt Range, District Chakwal,
Pakistan. Science International (Lahore), 25(3): 521-529p.
Boustani, M., Khawaja, A. A., 1997. Microfacies Studies of Sakesar Formation Central Salt
Range, Pakistan. Geology Bulletin University of Peshawar, 30: 131-142p.
Sameeni, S.J., Butt, A.A., 1997.

Signature of Candidate

Supervisor’s Certificate: I recommend the synopsis for the M.S research work.

Date: Signature of the proposed supervisor:

The case has been discussed in the meeting of Board of Studies on and recommended
for approval of the title and the name of the supervisor.

Date: Chairman of the Department

Date: Dean Faculty of Sciences

Submitted to Advance Studies and Research Board.