U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

icon-dot-gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

icon-https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Spatial Extent of Data

ISO 19115 Topic Category

Place Keywords

Data to determine new age constraints on the Ediacaran Salt Range Formation of Pakistan

The Neoproterozoic–Early Cambrian Salt Range Formation (SRF) of Pakistan is a sequence of salt, gypsum, marl, dolomite, fine-grained siliciclastic rocks (shale, siltstone and sandstone), oil shale, and hydrothermally altered extrusive volcanics. The formation occurs in the Salt Range physiographic feature, a mountain range rising 750 to 1000 m above alluvial plains of northwestern Pakistan, between the petroleum-producing Potwar Basin to the north and Punjab Platform to the south. We examined 12 SRF samples from 3 localities located over a distance of ~30 km in the eastern Salt Range at Sohan Nala (SN, 32.66176N, 72.72819E), Makrach Nala (MN, 32.64976N, 72.85527E), and Khewra Gorge (KG 32.64972N, 73.01246E). Samples included 7 thinly bedded SRF oil shales and 5 SRF marls comprised of clays and carbonates. Samples were analyzed by multiple approaches. Data from the analyses are included here in the following tables: Table S1 - X -ray diffraction (XRD) mineralogy Table S2.csv - Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS/MS) analysis Table S3 - Organic geochemical screening Table S4 - Elemental analysis and Organic ratios analysis on samples as received Table S5 - Reflectance measurements from organic petrographic analysis on solid bitumen and bituminite Tables S6 through S11 - One csv file reporting organic molecular data for 4 SRF oil shale, including SARA (saturate, aromatic, resin, asphaltene) fractionation and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry saturate and aromatic biomarker analysis Table S12 - Stable carbon and oxygen isotopic measurements on carbonate in select marl samples Table S13 - Qualitative Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy compositions from the analysis of clay ovoids Table S14 - Sixty-one major and trace element concentrations for all samples Table S15 - Platinum Group Elements (PGE) from the analysis of 8 SRF oil shale and marl samples. Refer to the Data Quality section of the dataset's metadata for complete method and sample data descriptions.

Get Data and Metadata
Author(s) Paul C Hackley orcid, Ryan McAleer, Jay M Thompson orcid, Brett J Valentine orcid, Imran Khan
Publication Date 2026-04-09
Beginning Date of Data 2025
Ending Date of Data 2025
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P1WRBPG6
Citation Hackley, P.C., McAleer, R., Thompson, J.M., Valentine, B.J., and Khan, I., 2026, Data to determine new age constraints on the Ediacaran Salt Range Formation of Pakistan: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P1WRBPG6.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2026-04-09
Related Publication
Citations of these data No citations of these data are known at this time.
Access public
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Loading...
Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2026-04-24T04:52:10.684Z