Kinematics of the Greater Himalayan sequence, Dhaulagiri Himal ...

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units with their original formation names.
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The top of the Midlands group observed in the Kali Gandaki valley comprises a noncalcareous
quartz, muscovite, biotite schist that structurally overlies the Malekhu Formation
(Figure 5), a conspicuous limestone unit characterized by a light yellowish brown weathering
surface and a light grey fresh surface. It crops out as well-defined layers locally with thin
micaceous partings.
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The Malekhu Formation overlies the Benighat Formation (Figure 5), which consists of dark
weathering phyllitic schist and calc-schist (Figure 6a) with thin intercalations of limestone near
the upper part. In the map-area the thickest of these Jhiku carbonate beds (Stöcklin 1980) are
decimetre-scale dark grey to black weathering, white crystalline marble layers separated by thin,
millimetre-scale, partings of dark grey to black phyllitic material. The dark weathering of the
limestone reflects relatively high graphite content in the surrounding schist.
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The Dhading Formation crops out below the Benighat Formation and consists of light grey-totan
weathering, locally isoclinally folded, (Figure 6b) meta-dolostone and meta-limestone. In the
Kali Gandaki valley, it crops out just north of the village of Tatopani and is up to ca. 375 m thick
(Figure 2). While the Dhading Formation is reportedly fossiliferous in the Kathmandu area
(Stöcklin 1980) no fossils were observed in the Kali Gandaki or Myadi valleys.
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The Dandagaon Formation, which is observed below the Dhading Formation (Figure 5) is not
distinguishable from the overlying Nourpul Formation in the Kali Gandaki valley; together, the
Nourpul and Dandagaon formations comprise a ca. 400 m thick sequence of interbedded
carbonate rocks, phyllitic carbonate rocks, limey phyllitic schist and phyllitic schist, intercalated
dark grey weathering quartz, biotite, muscovite schist, and thin layers of light tan weathering
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