Engineering and Environmental Geology

Project Description

The Sulaiman fold belt, covering about 200000 square kilometer with an average 15 km of tectonic thickness of strata, is recognized as the most important petroleum province of Pakistan (Raza et al., 1989a, 1989b).  It occurs as a conspicuous tectonic feature at the western terminus of the Indian Plate, which is undergoing through active deformation during present state of its evolution.   Active deformation of the Sulaiman fold belt is manifested by the presence of active faults (Kazmi, 1979) and acute degree of seismicity (Quittmeyer et. al., 1979; Quittmeyer et. al., 1984). Geologically, Recent (0 Ma) to Permo-Triassic Alozai Group ( 284 Ma) strata is exposed in the Sulaiman fold belt.  The stratigraphic thickness of about 10 km at the mountain front (Jadoon et al., 1992, 1994a) is far more in access than about 1 km stratigraphic thickness of similar strata in the Salt Range and Potwar Plateau (Lillie et al. 1987; Jadoon et al., 1997).  The excessive thicknesses of platform strata in the Sulaiman fold belt is related to the presence of ocean/continent transitional crust underneath the Sulaiman fold belt (Jadoon and Khurshid, 1996).  Despite of active seismicity that requires to be assessed in more detail with an understanding of the emergent and blind thrusts for earthquake hazard assessments, and potential of 10 km stratigraphically thick sedimentary strata as source and reservoir rocks, excess, the Sulaiman fold belt has not yet been fully mapped.  This is mainly due to political instability and the presence of much of the Sulaiman fold belt in the frontier regions of Baluchistan.  Sporadic mapping, mainly based on the aerial photograph and Satellite Image interpretations is available across the Sulaiman fold belt (HSC, 1961;  Abu_Bakr and Jackson, 1964; USGS, 1973; Kazmi, 1982; Bannert et al., 1992; Jadoon, 2010, GSP 2010).  This project is aimed at undertaking the responsibility of gathering all existing geological information and combine it with Satellite Images Interpretation of the selected regions of the Sulaiman fold belt to produce a Tectonic map of the region between the Longitudes 67º to 71º N   and Latitudes 28º to 32º E.  This geological map, covering about 2,00,000 square kilometer aerial distribution of strata, is aimed at to serve as a basis to understand geology and tectonic evolution of the Sulaiman fold belt, identification of prospects for hydrocarbon/mineral exploration, analysis of seismicity, geohazard assessments, multidisciplinary scientific, and socio-economic uplift of the area.   
 

Project Funding

Sr. No.Funding BodyFunds
1 HEC Pakistan 3.54 Million Rupee

Members

  • Dr. Ishtiaq A. K. Jadoon