Light-gray to light-olive-gray laminated and thin-bedded carbonaceous silt and clay interbedded with fine sand; thin lignite beds occur locally. Lower part of the formation includes beds of fossiliferous, glauconitic fine quartz sand containing speroidal sandstone concretions, gravel and clay pebbles.
Varicolored fine to coarse quartz sand containing clay lenses and gravel in places. Gravel composed of quartz and chert pebbles and assorted metmorphic and igneous rock fragments in streams near the Piedmont. In areas of the Valley and Ridge province gravel composed of angular to subrounded chert, quartz, and quartzite pebbles. Coastal deposits include fine to medium quartz sand with shell fragments and accessory heavy minerals along Gulf beaches and fine to medium quartz sand, silt, clay, peat, mud and ooze in the Mississippi Sound, Little Lagoon, bays, lakes, streams, and estuaries.
Moderate-yellowish-orange thin-bedded to massive fine to coarse sand, gravelly sand, thin-bedded to massive clay and sandy clay. Clays are plastic in part. Limonite pellets occur in places along clay-sand contacts. Gravel is composed of quartz and chert granules and pebbles. Locally the upper part of the unit is Pliocene in age.
Moderate-reddish-brown deeply weathered fine to very coarse quartz sand and varicolored typically mottled lenticular beds of clay and clayey gravel. Limonite pebbles and lenses of limonite cemented sand occur locally in weathered exposures. Gravel is composed of chert and quartz pebbles.
Greenish-gray calcareous, glauconitic, fossiliferous clayey sand; marl; carbonaceous sand; carbonaceous silty clay; and coarse glauconitic, fossiliferous, quartz sand.
White to very light-greenish-gray thin-bedded to massive siliceous claystone; interbedded with thin layers of fossiliferous clay, sandy clay, and glauconitic sand and sandstone. White to light-greenish-gray fine to coarse sand and fine gravel occur at the base of the formation in southwest Alabama (Meridian Sand Member).
Varicolored lenticular beds of poorly sorted sand, ferruginous sand, silt, clay, and gravelly sand. Sand consists primarily of very fine to very coarse poorly sorted quartz grains; gravel composed of quartz, quartzite, and chert pebbles.
Descriptions of the units of the Oligocene Series follow in descending order. Paynes Hammock Sand - locally fossiliferous, calcareous, argillaceous medium to coarse sand; pale-blue-green clay; and thin-bedded sandy limestone; exposed at Paynes Hammock and at St. Stephens. Chickasawhay Limestone - white to yellowish-gray fossiliferous, glauconitic limestone and soft marl. Byram Formation includes three members in descending order: Bucatunna Clay Member - dark, bentonitic, carbonaceous, sparsely fossiliferous clay and greyish-yellow sand; unnamed marl member - light-grey to yellowish-grey sandy, glauconitic , fossiliferous marl; Glendon Limestone Member - irregularly indurated coquinoid and crystalline limestone, weathering to indurated rock containing large tubular cavities, locally known as 'horsebone'. Marianna Limestone - white to yellowish-grey soft, porous, very fossiliferous limestone. Forest Hill sand - dark-greenish-grey carbonaceous clay with lenses of glauconitic fossiliferous sand; extends eastward from MS into Choctaw, Clarke and Washington Counties. Red Bluff Clay - greenish-gray calcareous clay locally containing selenite crystals, yellowish-grey glauconitic, fossiliferous limestone; and light-gray silty clay with interbeds of sand (Forest Hill equivalent); from Tombigbee River eastward grades into glauconitic fossiliferous limestone equivalent to the Bumpnose Limestone. Bumpnose Limestone - very light-gray to yellowish-gray chalky, subcoquinoid, glauconitic, argillaceous, fossiliferous limestone; intertongues with Red Bluff Clay in vicinity of the Alabama River and is readily differentiated eastward from the Sepulga River.
Light to dark-gray laminated carbonaceous clay, silt and very fine to fine sand, and cross-bedded glauconitic sand; one or more thin beds of fossiliferous marly glauconitic sand and sandstone occur in the upper part. Near the base is a prominent bed of glauconitic calcareous sand containing abundant fossils and spheroidal to pillow-shaped sandstone concretions (Bashi Marl Member). In parts of southeast AL the upper beds of the Th were either eroded or not deposited and the overlying Tt formation directly overlies the Bashi Marl Member.
The units of the Jackson Group are the Yazoo Clay and Crystal River and Moodys Branch Formations. Descriptions of the members of the Yazoo Clay follow in decending order. Shubuta Member - in western Alabama consists of light-greenish-gray to white plastic fossiliferous, calcareous clay containing irregular calcareous nodules. From the Tombigbee River eastward the Shubuta becomes more calcareous and grades into massive clayey glauconitic limestone. Eastward from the Alabama River, equivalent beds grade into the Crystal River Formation. Pachuta Marl Member - light-greenish-grey glauconitic, fossiliferous clayey sand and sandy limestone traceable from western Alabama eastward to Covington County where it grades into the Crystal River Formation. Cocoa Sand Member - yellowish-gray firm calcareous, fossiliferous fine to medium sand or sandy limestone or greenish-grey micaceous, calcareous, very clayey sand. Calcareous and clayey sand equivalent to the Cocoa is traceable from western Alabama to the Conecuh River area. North Twistwood Creek Clay Member - greenish-gray plastic calcareous, sparsely fossiliferous, blocky massive clay; grades into Crystal River formation in southeast AL. Crystal River Formation - white to yellowish-grey medium-grained to coquinoid limestone that is soft and chalky to compact and brittle; principally in southeastern AL but interfingers westward with members of the Yazoo Clay. Moodys Branch Formation - greenish-gray to pale-yellowish-orange glauconitic, calcareous, fossiliferous sand and sandy limestone; underlies the Yazoo Clay and the Crystal River Formation.
Members of the Nanafalia Formation follow in descending order. Grampian Hills Member - medium-gray massive clay, claystone, sandy fossiliferous clay, and fossiliferous fine sand. "Ostrea thirsae beds" - glauconitic, abundantly fossiliferous, quartzose fine to medium sand. Gravel Creek Sand Member - pale-yellowish-orange to moderate-reddish-brown micaceous cross-bedded fine to very coarse sand containing gravel and clay pebbles in some exposures. Gravel Creek Member is absent locally and near the base may contain thin beds of lignite. Updip deposits in northern Henry County and southern Barbour County include beds of alternating medium-gray and white clay, carbonaceous clay, white and grayish-yellow fine to coarse sand and lenses of bauxite and bauxitic clay. Sand beds commonly are cross-bedded, gravelly, and contain numerous clay pebbles. The sequence of beds is often obscured by weathering and the collapse of beds into sinkholes in the underlying Clayton Formation.
White to moderate-reddish-orange locally mottled sandy clay and residual clay with scattered layers of gravelly medium to coarse sand, fossiliferous chert and limestone boulders and limonitic sand masses. Derived from solution and collapse of limestone in the Jackson Group and Oligocene Series and the slumping of Pliocene and Miocene sediments.
Highly fossiliferous, glauconitic, quartz sand and lenses of greenish-gray clay; occurs between MS state line and AL River.
The Naheola Formation is restricted to western AL and pinches out in western Butler County. Descriptions of the members of the formation follow in descending order. Coal Bluff Marl Member - glauconitic sand, thin-bedded silty clay, and sandy fossiliferous marl; Oak Hill Member - laminated silt, clay, and fine sand; contains a prominent bed of lignite near the top. The Coal Bluff Marl Member in Sumter County and in parts of Marengo County is mostly cross-bedded fine to coarse sand that is indistinguishable from the overlying lower beds of the Nanafalia Formation. Therefore, in these areas, the contact between the two is mapped at the top of the Oak Hill Member of the Naheola.