Cenozoic

Cretaceous

Jurassic

Triassic

Permian

Carboniferous

Devonian

Silurian

Ordovician

Cambrian

Neoproterozoic

Main source = Baratov, R.B., et al. (1976). Subdivisions of stratified and intrusive rocks of Tajikistan. Publishing House "Donish", Dushanbe, 269 pp. plus tables. Provided by Dr. Jovid Aminov, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan Translated to English by the GeoGPT group, Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou, China--see About

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Kafirnigan Formation

Kafirnigan Fm

Period:

Neogene

Age Interval:

Middle-Late Miocene (N₁kf), C2, C2a

Province:
Central W Tajik

Type Locality and Naming

Includes in Dushanbe-west Shirkent-Luchob, east Shirkent-Luchob

Synonym: Kafirnigan suite, Kафирниrанская свита

Reference section:

Lithology and Thickness

It is represented by coarse-bedded and massive gray sandstones containing rare interlayers and lenses of brown siltstones, gravelites, and conglomerates. The thickness of the suite is 400-1800 m.

Lithology Pattern:

Aus Conglomerate

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It conformably overlays the Boljjuan Fm (больджуанской свите)

Upper contact

It is conformably overlapped by the Karanak Fm (каранакской свитой)

Regional extent

It is distributed in the Kafirnigan district and on a small area in the west of the Vakhsh district. Lithostratigraphic studies and geological mapping allowed establishing the stratigraphic correspondence of the Kafirnigan Fm to two suites - the Khingausk Fm and the Tavildara Fm (хингоуской п тавильдаринской) (Melamed, 1965).

GeoJSON

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Fossils

In the upper third of the Kafirnigan Fm (кафирниганс.кой свиты), fossil remains of the skull of Mastodon aff. angustidens Cuv. were found.

The Kafirnigan Fm (Кафирниганская свита) contains palynocomplexes "C2" (correlative taxa -- Picea schrenkiana Sieb. et Zucc., Ephedripites hungaricus E. Nagu) and "D" (correlative taxa Juniperus and Pistacia).

Age

Theo fossil remains, which determine the age of the enclosing deposits as middle-late Miocene (Babkov and Kukhmazov, 1950). This finds, as well as the conformable deposition of the Kafirnigan suite on the nominally Lower Miocene Boljuon suite provides grounds for the conditional attribution of the Kafirnigan suite to the Middle-Late Miocene.The latter has been encountered in the lower part of the Karanak suite, which may suggest a correspondence between the upper part of the Kafirnigan suite and the lower sections of the Karanak suite, and thus either a partially Pliocene age for the top of the Kafirnigan suite or, conversely, a Late Miocene age for the base of the Karanak suite. A.V. Pen'kov (Pen'kov and Pen'kova, 1973) suggests, based on paleomagnetic research, a different correlation of the Kafirnigan suite with the Khingouskaya, Tavildarinskaya, and other suites. This contradicts the results of the lithostratigraphic studies outlined above.

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Langhian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.5

Beginning date (Ma):

14.91

Ending stage:

Messinian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

1.0

Ending date (Ma):

5.34

Depositional setting

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

Extracted from Baratov, R. B. (1976). Subdivisions of stratified and intrusive rocks of Tajikistan. Donish, Dushanbe, 276.