9
CHAPTER
II
GEOLOGY
A part of the- Himalayas has formed from a geosyncline
(G a n s s e r ,1965)
and the main mountain ridge arose out of an
activated area of the In d ia n s h ie ld ,
K a ila and Narain (1 9 7 6 )
state that " i f one disregards Kashmir, i t may be said that
the sub-Himalayas and the low and high Himalayas are composed
of elements which once belonged to the boundary part of the
In d ian s h i e l d ".
Gansser further points out that in the ter­
rito r y of the Himalayas outside the extremly northern zone
and the region of Kashmir, d e f i n i t e l y post-Precambrian- preGondwana deposits are known to exist ju s t at a few s i t e s ,
the remaining part of the Himalayas is made up of metamorphic
stra ta ,
in part pre-Cambrian. However,
thern zone (T ib e t Himalaya)
Karakorum
in the extreme nort-
along the boundary lin e of
and Tibet a complete sequence of Palaeozoic and
Mesozoic deposits are known to e x is t .
The zone of Himalayas
xo
to Tibet e x h ib it almost to ta l lack of volcanic and magmatic
m anifestations excepting some zones of the Indus
Narain,
(K a ila and
1 9 7 6 ).
Petrushevsky (1 9 7 1 )
has stated that the p e r s is te n tly
and slowly developing through in the. area was intim ately
associated with the large and deep fa u lt of considerable
extension and t h is f a u l t is s t i l l v is ib l e and called the
Main Himalayan F ault.
In the Cenozoic and Paleozoic-Mesozoic
near-fault trough was converted into a near- fault fo.lded
zone. In only one region in Kashmir on the southern slopes
i
of the mountains were deposts
Tibet zone are Known,to e x is t ,
of fa c ie s of the Himalayan
one observes appreciable
departure from the ty p ic al sequence of this
zone. Here occur
the "P a ja l T rap s" which represent the Upper Carboniferous
to the Upper T r ia ss ic epochs.
Krishnan (1 9 6 8 )
observed that
in the Cretaceous deposits of Kashmir are found e ffu s iv e
and in tru siv e rocks, though Petruschevsky does not regard
these s ig n if ic a n t and laying any lig h t on structure of the
zon e: Himalaya to T ib e t . However,
K aila and Narain record
that small Kashmir depressions located on the other sid e of
the Himalayan ridge belong to a d if f e r e n t tectonic u n it
than that w ith in which the Himalayan- Tibet near- fault
folded zone was formed; fu rth er that
the genesis of the
Kashmir depression is associated with movements that occur
in the region of the a rt ic u la t io n of the In d ia n Platform
and' the young geosynclinal structure located to the w e s t . ..
....
Himalaya must be considered as part of the In d ian
11
Platform- which during the Neogene - Q u a t e r n a r y period experienced rapid and shrp elevations • • • « . . .
the nature of
th is u p l i f t i s very close to that of the la te st u p lift s of
high A s i a " .
Wadia (1 93 1)
and Krishnan (1 9 6 8 ) i n the comparison
of the P e n in sular In d ia and extra P en in sular (Himalayan)
and Tibetan geology strongly suggest that the Tethys Himal­
aya and Tibet is almost complete and largely m arine,
Crawford
(1 9 7 4 )
stated that In d ia and Tibet are to be rega­
rded fo r most of Phanerozoic time as one huge crustal u n it ,
the southern h a lf emerged and the northern submerged and
th at i t is p o ssib le that the Gondwanas of Nepal and the ea­
stern Himalayas are in the form of a r i f t which have an
unmetamorphosed cover and the Tethys sediments which have
f a c i l it a t e d stru ctural f a l iu r e along i t .
Late in Phanerozoic
time vigorous sea floo r spreading in the northwest In d ia n
ocean lead to the conditions in which the whole Indo-Tibetan
«
p late was by then close to the rest of A s ia ,
i t could not approach fa r t h e r ;
produced the Himalaya.
towards which
thus the overthrusting
I t is in teres tin g to note that the
main e lev atio n of the Himalayas was an event witnessed by
the e a r l ie s t man (G a n s s e r ,1 9 6 4 ).
Gansser fu rth er recorded
the f i n a l ris e of the Tibei|plateau w ith the youngest actua­
l l y recent morphogenic ris e of the Himalaya and its counter­
part the Sinkiang of the In d ian fo re lan d .
The Tibetan part
of the Indo-Tibet plate is known to have started to rise
12
before the main Himalayan orogeny as the marine Eocene of
the Tibet passed, into the continental deposits* Crawford
has stated about T ib et, that i t was o r ig in a lly a part of the
p late inc lud ing In d ia but submerged w h ile In d ia remained
continental I In this connection his observation is
cant,
namely,
s ig n ifi­
that during th is period shallow su b p ara lle l
fractures developed w ith in which the Gondwana sediments of
the Himalaya were preserved
(I)
and that from pre-Cambrian
times Tibet and Gondwana In d ia are one.
I t is agreed that
the Phanerozoic geological environment changed from a marine
Tethyan at the end of the Permian and was subsequently con­
t in e n t a l.
Petrushevsky ( l 9 7 l ) d iv id e s the en tire Alpide Him­
alayan b e lt into three d is t in c t se c to rs :
(a) western - the
area from the western Mediterranean to B alu ch istan,
tern ,
Burma southeastwards and eastwards,
and (c )
(b)
eas­
the much
smaller central area - the Him alaya. In each sectors are
4
narrow zones which traverse in m eridional and subm eridional
d ir e c t io n s ,
the number of them are common to both geosynclines
and to platform s.
Schastsky (1 9 4 3 ) considers Indo-Pamir
zone as the most important of these and it serves as the
eastern boundary of the Mediterranean A lp id e folded b e l t .
In c id e n t a lly ,
i t may be noted that Sin itsy n (1 9 6 2 )
on basis of palaeogeographic observations concluded that the
western^and the eastern part of the Asian continent ha¥e
developed d if f e r e n t l y and are divided by a m eridional zone
of u p l i f t ;
and that " Central A s ia " was an o rig in a l d ivide
13
between the western and eastern groups of sea basins - the
A tlan tic and P a c ific ones.
Rezov (1 9 6 4 )
thought that a " great boundary b e l t ”
of Asia existed and th is is confirmed by K aila and Narain
(197 6) who state that the western and eastern margins of the
newly proposed
(by them) Indo-Tibetan plate agreed to some
extent with the western and eastern margins of the '‘b e l t "
proposed by Rezov, but the northern margin of our Indo-Tibetan
p late in Tien-Shen- Nan Shan region cuts across th is great
boundary b e l t .
Pande and Gupta (1 9 7 2 ) divided the northwest Himal­
ayas into four broad zones as fo llo w s :
1 . The Nimadric Geosyncline includ ing Patwar p lateau , Mioc­
ene and P leisto cene fresh water sediments as d e p o s its .
2 . The Himalayan zone in c lu d in g Outer Himalayas and foot h i l l s
co n sistin g of T ertiary , Mesozoic and Palaeozoic rocks.
3.
The main c r y s ta llin e axis separating the Himalayan zone
4
from the northern Tethyan zone. I t shares elements of
both the Himalayan nappes and also Trans-Himalayan zone.
4.
Tethyan zone of Kashmir. This is ch aracterised in to two
su b d iv isio n s.
(a)
the valley of Kashmir, f o s s i l if e r o u s marine d ep o sits,
Karewas and c r y s ta llin e rocks to the north.
(b) the Karakorums inc lud ing Ladak.
In Kashmir v alle y north of c r y s t a llin e axis the st­
ructure is rather sim ple. The P a lae o zo ic s,
Mesozoics and the
T e r tia r ie s show simple fo lds and d is l o c a t io n s , With respect
14-
to attempts made by some workers to co rrelate structure of *
Karakoram, Zanskar and Kashmir v alley as a great nappe,
Pande and Gupta state that " actually the Kashmir b a s in former
a major synclinorium w ith a complimentary anticlinorium
structure on the north of P ir Panjal and south of Karakoram
Further,
that the tectonic h isto ry of Kashmir basin and the
Himalayan zone of Jammu cannot be correlated to a sin g le
orogenesis.
In fa c t during the Himalayan orogeny, the Hima­
layas along the Kashmir basin and Zanskar range were u p l i ­
fted and the Himalayan u p l i f t took place in fiv e p hase s.
is stated that the Lower Karewas were u p lift e d
in a v e r t ic a l r is e of P ir P a n ja l
(de Terra,
It
2,000m - 2,500m
1 9 3 ^ ). I t appears
that the area was v e r t ic a lly u p lifted to a height of 5,000m
and the v e r t ic a l movement was synchronous with the Siw alik
orogeny of the sub-Himalayas (Strachey,
1 3 5 1 ). Wadia (1932)
states that th is u p l if t of the Himalayan mountains that
ra ise d the Karewa beds caused t i l t i n g of the Late P leisto cene
t
lake terraces round Srin a g ar,
the e f f e c t of th is upheaval
being as f a r west as the salt range i
/
The Tethyan sea more or less completly disappeared
i n Late Eocene leaving a few lakes as it s remnants.
In mid­
d le Miocene in the Kashmir b a sin the rocks suffered v e r t ic a l
u p lift and l i t t l e fo l d in g .
ocene,
In late Miocene to lower P l e i s t ­
the rocks of both the Tethyan geosyncline
and
Himalayan b a sin were subjected to furth er u p l if t in the area
now held by P ir Panjal range.
as cen tral rid g e
The freshwater basins as w ell
(in Kashmir) were fu rth er u p lifte d in v e r t ic a l
15
sense and attained appreciable elevation towards south of
the c r y s ta llin e rid g e .
Towards north of P ir P a n ja l a ^um­
ber of lakes were formed which may be remnants of the
older geosyncline and probably re ceivin g sediments during
Pontian times and continued u n t il
the end of P le isto ce n e.
In the middle P leisto cene in Kashmir b a sin the movements con­
tinued to be active with the r e su lt that Karewa d eposits
were u p l if t e d and acquired gentle fo ld in g along the northern
flank of the P ir P a n ja l range.
The P ir P anjal range runs at present NW-SE d ir e c t io n ,
roughly p a r a l l e l to the main Himalayan chain which l ie s
east o f i t .
The northeast slopes are densely wooded and
covered with the old moraines of g la c ie rs with several times
during the P leisto cene Ice Age over-ran the greater part of
Kashmir,
./here the moraines are not covered w ith fo rests
they form extensive undulating meadows as at Gulmarg,
lanmarg, Sonamarg,
Yusmarg,
etc.
(S ah n i,
1 9 3 6 ).
Khil-
The range
t
i s largely of recent o rig in
de Terra in v/odehouse,
1935)
(Middlem Hiss,
and i t s ,
1 9 2 1 ; W adia,
1926;
" recent elev atio n is
only a part of the vast upheaval which has affected
the
main Himalayan range on the one side and the Potwar p lateau
( between Rawalpindi and Jhelum) on the other.
period'm an existed in t h is part of the world
de Terra
(c f .
v/odehouse,
During th is
(c f.
3 a h n i ,1 9 3 6 ) .
1935) has id e n t if i e d f o s s i l s from
P ir Panjal as fo re st trees and shrubs lik e oak, w illow ,
poplar,
a ld er,
rose,
rhododendron, cinnamom,
h o lly ,
and box.
Several aquatics also fig u r e in the l i s t such as Trapa.
V a l l i s n e r i a . Chara. At present the la tte r do not occur in
16
the lakes higher up in mountains but do so in the lakes in
the v a lle y p l a i n s .
S im ilarly most of the land plants occur
now on the lower slopes.
This shows that a great part of
the P ir P a n ja l range has been u p lifte d in quite recent
geologic tim es.
I t is w ell known that at one time the whole val.ley
was covered with Karewa deposit of a vast lake which may
have extended to the Panjab lying on southwestern slopes
of th is range.
At present,
these lie in iso la ted b lo ck s.
Shrinking remnants of th is lake at present are the lakes
D a l,
Manasbal, Wular,
etc.
This Karewa lake was flanked on
the north by the slope of the main Himalaya and oh the
south what is P ir P a n ja l range. The la t t e r separated the
lake basin from the In d ian p lain s
In te r e s tin g ly ,
and fauna
( de Terra,
1936 ) .
" th is ancient lake inhabited by a flo r a
not very d if f e r e n t from that which flo u rish e s
today in the Manasbal or the Wular " (S a h n i,
1 9 3 6 ).
The extrusion of P anjal vo lcanics represents a break
in the sedimentary sequence of Kashmir and in d ic a te s the
prevalence of co ntinental to sh elf co nditio ns in th is
region of the Himalaya.
The volcanic a c t i v i t y , which occured
mostly in the late Carboniferous period in southeastern Kas­
hmir continued throughout Permian and also p a r tly in the
T r ia ss ic in the northwestern part of the Kashmir b a s i n .
The P a n ja l volcanic a c tiv ity was followed by the d ep o sitio n
of the continental Gangomoteris beds,
cherts,
carboniferous
shales,
comprising s ilic e o u s
thin bedded limestones and
17
some q uartzites*
These contain f o s s i l impressions of Gango-
mp^teris. G lo s s o p te r is . and skeletons of labrynthodont f o s s il s .
i- k
In some sections in the southwestern part of P ir P anjal range,
the Agglomeratic slate sequence passes into a th ic k t i l l i t i c
conglomerate
(Rattan P i r ) , which is overlain by a dark sla te
containg p lan t f o s s i l s . This plant bed i s overlain by the
P anjal Trap.
The P a n ja l volcanic a c tiv ity appears to have
ceased in late Carboniferous times in the southeastern part
of Kashmir v a lle y and was also followed by the dep o sitio n
of the Gangompteris beds, which in turn,
were overlain by
f
f o s s il if e r o u s marine Zewan beds of Permian age.
This marked
the beginning of the second cycle of marine sedim entation
in the area w ith an uninterrupted sequence of ric h ly f o s s i l ­
ifero u s
in Sindh,
calcarious fa c ie s of the T r ia s s i c ,
which is
seen
the Lidder and the Wardwan v alleys and in the parts
of P ir P a n ja l range.
The end of the T r ia s s ic period marked
the closure of the second phase of marine tran sgressio n in
*
the area and only scattered sedimentation took place in the
T r ia ss ic tim es.
north of Banihal
Exposures of Jurrasic rocks are seen to the
(near Lower Munda) and near B alta l in the
Sonamarg-Zoji La sections and comprise scanty outcrops of
dark pyritous slates with thin limestones containing in d e t­
erminate remains of amonites and b e lim in ites of Ju rassic
age.
The whole sequence of Kashmir Sedim entaries occurs as
a doubly plunging N7/-3.S tending syncline and does not extend
ftbeyond the Ravi riv er towards the southeast. The centre of
th is synform i s occupied by the b e a u t ifu l Kashmir v a lle y .
18
The Kashmir sedimentary basin has prevented d ir e c t continu­
ation of the central c r y s t a llin e towards the southeast in
the eastern part of Kashmir Him alaya.
However,
Drass and south of S p it i sedimentary b a s in ,
southeast of
one notes cont­
inu atio n of the cen tral c r y s t a llin e s ,
comprising of Mun Kun
g ra n ite s,
k y an ite- sillim an ite
g ra n itife r o u s m ica-schists,
schists and continuing almost upto the upper reaches of the
Ghenab river£
Raina and Krishnaswamy,
1 9 7 6 ).