WILL DOWNS AND THE ZINDA PIR DOME

Abstract

Will Downs pioneered paleontological study of deposits near Dalana in the Zinda Pir Dome in 1989 and worked there for over a decade thereafter. He was especially skilled in constructing a sequence of microsites spanning the oldest part of the Chitarwata Formation into the lower levels of the Vihowa Formation. The project he inspired also employed magnetostratigraphy to correlate with the Global Polarity Time Scale. At present, fossils remain the most informative indicator of age of the Chitarwata Formation arguing for Oligocene correlation of the base of the section, earliest Miocene for the upper part of the Chitarwata Formation, and early Miocene for the base of the Vihowa Formation, antedating Siwalik deposits on the Potwar Plateau of Pakistan. The magnetostratigraphic data are less conclusive. We developed two alternative interpretations to illustrate constraints on the age of the Chitarwata Formation. One interpretation places the base of the formation in Chron 7Ar, about 25.8 Ma; the other places it in Chron 11n.1r, about 29.8 Ma.