approved: Dr. Robert S. Yeats The oldest sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks exposed in the Himalayan foothills of Pakistan record a gradual transition seaward from the evaporites of the Salt Range Formation to pelitic sediments deposited in deeper water to the north. The Upper Proterozoic Tanawal Formation was derived from erosion of a northern highland produced during the early stages of Late Proterozoic to early Ordovician tectonism. Early Paleozoic tectonism is indicated by an angular

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... nformity at the base of the Paleozoic section, the intrusion of the Mansehra Granite, and the local removal of Cambrian strata. Paleozoic shallow-marine strata are preserved in half-grabens created during extensional tectonism that began during the Carboniferous and climaxed with rifting during the Permian. Paleozoic rocks were largely or completely eroded from northwest-trending highlands on the landward side of the rift shoulder. Thermal subsidence of the rifted margin resulted in transgression of the highlands and deposition of a Mesozoic section dominated by carbonates. Compressional tectonism related