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These notes introduce a new geological map at 1:150 000 scale of a large part of the Upper Hunza valley (Karakorum, Pakistan). The mapped area includes the Permian to Cretaceous sedimentary cover of the Karakorum. The mapped sedimentary and intrusive complexes form four major tectonic units, stacked in a very complex system, due to polyphase events, spanning from Cretaceous to Cenozoic. These events are linked to repeated collisions against the Asian margin of the Kohistan Arc during the Cretaceous and of the Indian Plate during the Cenozoic. -from Authors

The oldest deformational structures recognized in the Karakoram sedimentary cover north of the Karakoram Axial Batholith (KAB) consist of an E-W deformed belt composed of Permian-early Cretaceous sediments. In the Chapursan Valley a complex and polyphase antiformal stack consisting of a Permian to Cretaceous succession was recognized. Post-Cretaceous northward and northeastward directions of transport are shown by slip vectors along thrust planes and by fold axes in the Chapursan Valley, whereas NW-SE-trending folds due to northeastward transport were observed in the Shimshal Valley. The last tectonic phase recognized in the Chapursan Valley caused the activation of an important set of E-W-orientated sinistral strike-slip faults. In the Shimshal Valley, large E-W sinistral and NW-SE dextral faults are present as well. The sedimentary cover of the Karakoram was deformed under anchimetamorphic conditions in the Chapursan Valley, whereas sericite to muscovite low-grade metapelites with occurrence of chloritoid, epidote and biotite are present in the lower Shimshal Valley. -from Author