Microfacies analysis and diagenetic fabric of the Lockhart Limestone exposed near Taxila, Margalla Hill Range, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The microfacies analysis and diagenetic fabric of the Lockhart Limestone are studied in an outcrop section exposed in the Margalla Hill ranges. The Lockhart Limestone is predominantly composed of medium to thick bedded, nodular and occasionally brecciated, highly fossiliferous limestone with thin interbeds of marl and shale. On the basis of detailed petrographic investigations, four microfacies have been identified including bioclastic packstone, wackestone (siliciclastic bioclastic rich sub-microfacies), wackestone-packstone, and mud-wackestone. Based on the microfacies analysis, the Lockhart Limestone is interpreted to have been deposited in the fore-shoal mid-ramp, mid-ramp, and outer ramp depositional environments. The Paleocene age has been assigned to the Lockhart Limestone based on age diagnostic foraminifera, i.e., Miscellanea, Lockhartia, and Ranikothalia. The diagenetic fabric of the Lockhart Limestone is characterized by several diagenetic features such as micritization, neomorphism (aragonite to calcite transformation and development of microspar), compaction, pressure dissolution (microstylolites), and cementation (calcite-filled microfractures). Such diagenetic features are developed in marine, meteoric, and burial diagenetic settings. The Paleocene Lockhart Limestone of Pakistan shows analogous features to that of the Paleocene Zongpu Formation (Member-3) of the Gamba-Tingri Basin of southern Tibet based on the outcrop features, microscopic fabric, and depositional environment.