LATE PALEOZOIC RIFTING IN NORTHERN PAKISTAN

Metasedimentary rocks exposed in the eastern Peshawar basin and the southern Swat region of northern Pakistan provide evidence for late Paleozoic continental rifting. The onset of extensional tectonics in the Early Carboniferous is indicated by north derived clasts in the Jafar Kandao Formation eroded from thermally induced uplifts of parts of the formerly passive margin of Gondwana. Rift highlands were eroded until they were inundated during the Middle Carboniferous. Renewed uplift accompanied the eruption of basaltic lava flows during the Early Permian. Uplift along south dipping, northeast striking normal faults during the Carboniferous was accompanied by alkaline magmatism represented by the Shewa-Shahbazgarhi and Warsak porphyries and Koga syenite. Geochemistry of basaltic flows (now amphibolites) and intrusions associated with Permian uplift is similar to the coeval Panjal volcanics of northwestern India and indicates rift zone magmatism. Postrifting thermal subsidence led to the deposition of Upper Triassic marine carbonate rocks which unconformably overlie the rift basalts. A similar tectonic history in central Afghanistan suggests continuity between the two regions prior to the opening of the Neo-Tethys.