Title: Stratigraphy of the Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan areas, Pakistan
Abstract: The Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan quadrangles cover an area of more than 8,600 square miles in north-central Pakistan, between lat 31° and 33°N.and long 70° and 71°E.This area contains two main physiographic units: the alluvial lowlands, which include the structurally undisturbed Indus and Bannu plains, and the folded belt, which includes the Khisor, Marwat, Bhittanni, and Sulaiman Ranges, as well as the highlands of Waziristan.These ranges and highlands form a nearly continuous mountain system between the Salt Range-Potwar Plateau region to the northeast and Baluchistan to the southwest.Total stratigraphic thickness exceeds 14,000 feet in the Khisor and Marwat Ranges.Sedimentary rocks of the following age are present: Cambrian (?), Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, middle and late Tertiary, and Quaternary.Lower Tertiary rocks are not present.Stratigraphic terminology for rocks in the Khisor and Marwat Ranges is the same as that used in the Salt Range and Potwar Plateau region to the northeast.Total stratigraphic thickness exceeds 38,000 feet in the Sulaiman Range-Waziristan area.Sedimentary rocks of Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary age are present.Rocks of Paleocene and Eocene age are particularly well developed in this region, in places exceeding 13,000 feet.Stratigraphic terminology for units of Mesozoic age is the same as that used in Baluchistan to the southwest.New names are proposed and type sections are designated for seven units in the eastern foothills of the Sulaiman Range.These units are the Baska Shale of early Eocene age; the Domanda Shale and Drazinda Shale Members of the Kirthar Formation, middle and late(?)Eocene age; the Chitarwata Formation of late Oligocene to late Miocene age; and the Vihowa, Litra, and Chaudhwan Formations of Pliocene and Pleistocene (?) age. Bl