Field Report

on Geology of Margalla hills (Pir Sohawa), Islamabad,PAKISTAN 30th April, 2008

Ahsan Jawaad
BS-Geology II
01-161072-005

Table of Contents
1 2 3 4 5 Introduction Geological Structure of the Area Stratigraphy Field Observations Conclusion 1 4 9 10 13

Chapter 1 1.Introduction
The Field trip to Margalla Hills (Pir Sohawa) was arranged under the supervision of the Faculty of Earth and Sciences, Bahria University Islamabad by Mr. Mohsin Munir. This field trip helped us to understand different geological structures in the fielde.g. Fold, Faults practically in the field

1.1 General Overview

The study area lies at the border of Islamabad (the Capital of Pakistan) and Rawalpindi Districts. Geographically, it stretches from 330, 42/ to 330, 44/ north latitude and 720, 46/ to 720, 52/ east longitude. Margalla hill range starts from this point and further run north-west direction which ultimately joins the Murree mountain series. Islamabad, the Capital City; is located in the southern foothills of Margalla hill range. This area lies at a distance of about 30 km from Islamabad. From the last 30-35 years, when the Capital city came into being, after that time, the Margalla hills remained the main supplier surrounding areas. Geologically, the rocks in the area range in age from Jurassic to Paleocene and are of sedimentary origin. It mainly comprises of sandstone and shale, which is very suitable for the construction of building and bridges. That is the reason that the beautiful and green Margalla hills are being eaten up by limestone mining and crushing activities, which in addition to the destruction of the natural landscape is of limestone for the construction of buildings, roads and bridges to the Islamabad and

causing large scale environmental degradation and air pollution. The site is exposed on the main Grand Trunk Road, which connects Islamabad with rest of the Punjab and North West Frontier Provinces of Pakistan.

1.2 Accessibility
The area of Pir sohawa is nearly 30km from Islamabad and not too far away from bahria university. University arranged Buses for us to go in the field. This area can also be approached through local transport.

Fig 1. Margalla hill range with surrounding areas

Chapter 2 2. Structure of Area

2.1 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE

Fig 2.1 Geological Map of Margalla Hill Range & Surrounding Areas

The rocks in the area range in age from Jurassic to Paleocene and are of sedimentary origin. The limestone deposits of the Samana Suk and lockhart limestone formation from the main source of aggregate material around lslamabad and are being quarried extensively. The various lithological units are described as under: The bedrocks in the study area are highly folded, faulted and over thrusted because of Himalayan uplift during Pliocene epoch. The deformational axes are running in ENEWSW direction. Among the many deformational units, MBT is the major fault. It has considerably wide fractured zone accompanied with many derivative faults and moreover

some epicenters of earthquake have concentrated along certain part of this fault. Figure-2.2 shows the tectonic features of the Margalla hills surrounding areas. Main Boundary Thrust (M.B.T.) in ENE-WSW trend Margalla Fault in ENE-WSW trend Hazara Thrust Panjal Thrust Jhelum Fault in N-S trend Manshera Thrust

Murree Thrust

Figure 2.2 - Tectonic features of the study area.

2.1 MAIN BOUNDARY THRUST (MBT)

The Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) is a long feature extending for several hundred kilometers (about 270 Km) along the Himalayan front. West of the Hazara-Kashmir syntaxes, it takes several bends and is concealed under the alluvial sediments at many places and therefore its structural continuity cannot be established. It passes at a closest Distance of about 1 km from Margala hills.

2.2 HAZARA THRUST FAULTS SYSTEM

The three branches of the Hazara thrust fault system are present in the Margala hills. The nearest trace of this fault is at a distance of about 15 km from the area. These are active Tectonic features.

2.3 REGIONAL GEOLOGICAL SETTINGS

Margala hills are a part of geosynclinals trough known as Indo-Gang tie synclinorium with an ENE-WSW axial trend. In the area various geological formations are exposed and they widely range from Precambrian to Holocene in age.

Chapter 3 3. STRATIGRAPHY
Based on the my present studies, the stratigraphy of the area is described below:

3.1 Hangu Formation

It consists of Iaterite, lateritic claystone and sandstone with minor siltstone. Sandstone is reddish brown, weathers dark rusty brown, fine to coarse grained, pisolitic and ferruginous. These are exposed in Mountains situated in the north part of Main Boundary Thrust (MBT). The main part of the Hills are composed of these rocks. Precambrian rocks consist of shale with intercalation of limestone layers. Paleozoic rocks sandstone, shale, conglomerate, limestone and dolomite. consist of

3.2 Lockhart Formation

It is well-developed formation in the area. It consists of predominantly marine limestone and subordinate marl and shale. Limestone is pale gray to dark gray, medium grained, thick bedded, in part nodular, hard, bituminous, and fossiliferous. Marl is grayish black amid fossiliferous. The shale is olive, gray to greenish gray and has weakly developed cleavage. Thickness ranges from 70 to 280 m. Limestone has an average Los Angels Abrasion Test Value of 22.79 percent loss for 500 revolutions. The average apparent specific gravity of the crushed rock is 2.69 and average absorption is 0.625. These are exposed in Hazara and Margala hills occupying the northern to central part of the area. They are in general black, hard and compact shale that are highly eroded along the bedding planes. The main part of the Haro River basin consists of these layers.

3.3 Patala Formation

It comprises sandstone and shale. Sandstone is grayish green to dark yellowish green, glauconitic, massive hard. Shale is greenish black, thin bedded and fissile. These sequences cover the southern part of the area. The rocks in this category consist of alternation of shale and sandstone. This series can be divided into two groups. One is Murree group of Miocene age and other is Siwalik group of Pliocene age. Rocks in these groups are generally weak, highly weathered and not able to endure erosion well. Among them, the shale is highly sheared and has turned into very weak red clay. The Soan river basin is composed of these layers.

The dip and strike measured at all three stations is as follows:

Station 1 2 3

Dip 45NW 30NE 20NW

Strike N75E N80W N65E

Chapter 4 4. Field Observations

4.1 Station 1
The location of station 1 is Longitude: 33o-47'-23" Latitude: 73o -07' - 16" The colour of the limestone was light grey and lot of nodular structure was present which were very visible at the top of the exposure. The Formation exposed can be distinguish from upper formation and lower formation. Every formation has a type section but not every section is a type section. Here type section has total exposure. Bedding here is not visible. Straight beds are easy to distinguish but nodulular bedding cannot be

distinguish. On the left side of the field there were three types of beddings. In field there were three main things to observe. These are: Colour of rock Lithology Grain size

If we see plants in the bedding then it means it is not totally limestone, clay or something else is also present there.

4.2 Station 2:
The location of station 2 is

Longitude: 33-47' -14" Latitude: 73- 06'- 58" Here was Ptala formation. It is composed of same lenses of limestone and carbonate. Major Lithology is Shale which is of greenish colour. This greenish shade is because of locanite. Pliocene fossils and micro fossils are more than macro fossils. This formation is present in between Margalla formation and Lockhart formation. the limestone here is generally called margalla hill limestone. Compaction is not present here.

4.3 Station 3

The location of station 3 is Longitude: 33-45'-37" Latitude: 73-04''-02" Here we enter in the middle of Tertiary and here the formation is from Pliocene to Eocene. Eocene fossils are abundant here, like Nummilites and Assilimites. Margalla Hill

limestone is also present here. Bedding is straight and no nodular bedding is present here. The colour is light grey, along with limestone chert is also present and veins are disturbed.

Conclusion
Following conclusion were drawn from the field trip 1. Major Boundary Thrust works the base of this area. 2. Rocks present here are of different lithology and are mostly from Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Pliocene. Here Jurassic formation is older then Miocene. 3. Major structure is anticline in this area. 4. Minor structure under compression effect of MBT is reverse Fault.

REFRENCES
Akhtar, M., Bajwa, M.S., & Kausar, A.B., 1983. Geology of Fatehjang area, Attock and Rawalpindi, Districts, Punjab. Pakistan. GSP 1. R. No. 171. Gauhar, S.H., 1966. Cement Resources of Pakistan, GSP, Pre-Publication. Issue No.39. Hussain, A., and Lawrance, R.D., 1987. Landslide near Nicholson Monument, Margalla Range, lslamabad, Pakistan, GSP I.R., No. 282. Latif, M., and Hussain, H., 2002. Limestone Quarry Sites Around Islamabad and Kohat. GSP 1. R. No. 721. Sheikh, I.M., Pasha, M.K., Williams, V.S., and Khan, K.S.A., 1993. Environmental Geology of the lslamabad-Rawalpindi Area, Pakistan. Project Report (I R), PK. 109,