Salt mountains

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Salt mountains
Highest peak Sakaser ( 1522  m )
location Pakistan
Salt Mountains (Pakistan)
Salt mountains
Coordinates 32 ° 40 ′  N , 72 ° 35 ′  E Coordinates: 32 ° 40 ′  N , 72 ° 35 ′  E
Type About Schiebungs - panel plaice with cuesta
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The Salt Mountains , engl. Salt Range , is a low mountain range in Punjab , Pakistan . With a maximum width of 30 kilometers, it extends in an arc that opens to the north for about 200 kilometers between the rivers Indus in the west and Jhelam in the east and south-east. In the north it borders on the Potwar plateau and in the south on the Punjab plain. Across the Indus, the Salt Range continues in the Surghar Range, which was previously considered to be part of the Salt Range. The name of the salt mountains is derived from the rock salt deposits, some hundreds of meters thick, on the southern flank of the mountains, from which the majority of Pakistan's salt consumption is covered. In addition, this salt is exported as so-called " Himalayan salt " and as lick stones , mainly to Europe. In addition to salt, other mineral resources are mined, including limestone, hard coal and gypsum. The mountains are crossed in the east by the M2 motorway, which connects Islamabad and Lahore .

geology

The salt mountains are created at the northern tip of the Indian plate by pushing a fragment, which forms the Siwaliks on the surface and appears here as a potwar plateau, over the main part of the plate. The thrust at this point is the most recent and outermost consequence of the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian plates and began 10 to 11 million years ago. It takes place underground along the slightly rising ductile, saline evaporite layer of the Billianwala subformation, part of the salt range formation that the mountain range gave its name. Because of the ductility of the layer in which the shear occurs, earthquakes in this area are rare relative to other areas of the sutures north of the Indian plate. At the same time, the expansion of the friction-reducing evaporite layer determines the width of the thrust front and thus the length of the rock. The Salt-range thrust thus forms a tongue-shaped spur of the Main Frontal Thrust (about: Front overthrust ) located along the southern margin of the entire Himalayan passes. The speed of the thrust is estimated at 9 to 14 millimeters per year at 20% to 35% of the speed of convergence of the two continental plates; other sutures to the north take up the rest. At the southern edge of the thrust, which extends for more than 100 kilometers in the direction of movement, it rises more steeply due to a 1 kilometer high, stepped fault in the subsurface, and the fault reaches the surface. There, erosion creates the two layers that represent the salt mountains. Thus, all layers up to the Billianwala from the late Precambrian / early Cambrian are exposed, i.e. the entire Phanerozoic . As a result, the salt mountains are of great interest for geology and paleontology, but also for mining. In the subsurface, material from the layer in which the shear occurs collects in the area of ​​the fault. Due to the decreasing mass of the cover due to erosion, the transport of the evaporites slows down here. Within a narrow strip, this leads to the above-mentioned salt deposits of unusually great thickness.

geography

Tilla Jogian in the salt mountains

The highest mountain in the range is the Sakaser at 1522  m . Other mountains:

  • Chel , 1124  m
  • ? on the west side at Kanawali, 1054  m
  • Tilla Jogian , 975  m

Lakes:

history

Salt has been mined in the Salt Range since pre-Christian times. The legend attributes the discovery of horses licking salt in the army of Alexander the Great during his Indian campaign in 326 BC. However, archaeological evidence suggests an even earlier use.

There are some temples in the salt mountains that date back to the 6th century.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Baker et al .: Development of the Himalayan frontal thrust zone: Salt Range, Pakistan
  2. ↑ [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/arth/meister/pakistan.html Salt Range Temples, Pakistan] (English) (link no longer available)

literature

Web links

Commons : Salt Range  - collection of images, videos and audio files