PETROGRAPHIC AND PROVENANCE OF THE SANDSTONE OF RAWALPINDI GROUP IN LESSER HIMALAYAS

Abstract

In the present work, we deal with the petrographic and provenance of the sandstone of the Rawalpindi group in the lesser Himalayas. The formations present in the project area are Murree and Kamlial Formations of the Rawalpindi group. The petrological studies of Murree and Kamlial Formations determine the minerals composition prospect, which minerals have high proportion and which one is less proportion. Which aim to determine the petrological characteristic of these rock formations for the use of scientific studies or in engineering projects. Both of these two formations are Siwalik molasse deposits, the same orogeny correlation, same age from the same group. Determine the difference in such kind of similar rock formations are very important and also challenge in the field of geology. With highly advance petrographically analysis, it shows that Kamlial formation consists of heavy minerals such as garnet, tourmaline, etc., as compared with Murree formation consists of light minerals such as quartzite, Felice and feldspar, etc. And the provenance analysis of the sandstone of the Rawalpindi group is performed by the QFL ternary diagrams method. All the plots in the QFL diagram plot on recycled orogeny provenance field.