Blank on the Geological Map

Abstract

This paper summarizes the history of the geological studies performed by Italian teams in the Karakorum-East Hindu Kush ranges (Pakistan and Sinkiang, China) over the past 35 years. These studies began under the direction of Ardito Desio, who was the lead Italian investigator from 1929 to the end of the seventies. The Italian teams were from the universities of Milan, Turin and Pavia and benefited from a fruitful cooperation with Pakistani authorities, mainly the Geoscience Laboratory of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, Islamabad. The main geological features of the Karakorum Terrane are described. To the south, the Southern Metamorphic Belt, the Ghamu Bar Unit and the Gazin–Darkot Metasedimentary Unit are identified. To the east of the Karambar River, they merge in a higher metamorphic degree unit. The Karakorum Batholiths forms the backbone of the Terrane, with isolated plutons intruding also into the neighbouring units. The Northern Karakorum shows the Crystalline Basement of pre-Ordovician age, overlaid by a sedimentary sequence from Ordovician to Jurassic without major unconformities. The deformations building since the Cretaceous the actual range are shortly exposed.