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.
Light-gray thick-bedded to massive pebbly quartzose sandstone, containing varying amounts of interbedded dark-gray shale, siltstone, and thin discontinuos coal. The Boyles Sandstone Member is a formally named unit in the lower part of the formation. Top of unit is mapped at the Black Creek coal.
Interbedded dark-gray shale, siltstone, medium-gray sandstone, and coal in cyclic sequences. In descending order the members include: Razburg Sandstone Member, Camp Branch Sandstone Member, Lick Creek Sandstone Member, and the Bremen Sandstone Member.
Massive beds of cross-bedded sand, gravelly sand, and lenticular beds of locally carbonaceous partly mottled moderate-red and pale-red-purple clay; lower part is predominantly a gravelly sand consisting chiefly of chert and quartz pebbles. Not mapped east of the Tallapooza River.
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.
Light-colored micaceous very fine to medium sand, cross-bedded sand, varicolored micaceous clay, and a few thin gravel beds containing quartz and chert pebbles. Beds of thinly laminated finely glauconitic very fine to fine sand, silt and dark-gray carbonaceous clay (Eoline Member) occur locally in the lower part in western AL. Locally quartz and chert gravels at the base of the formation range in size from very fine pebbles to large cobbles. In southeastern Elmore County the formation includes marine sediments consisting of glauconitic, fossiliferous, quartzose fine to medium sand and medium-gray carbonaceous silty clay. Not mapped east of the Tallapoosa River.
Light-greenish-gray to yellowish-gray cross-bedded, well-sorted, micaceous, fine to medium quartz sand that is fossiliferous and glauconitic in part and contains beds of greenish-gray micaceous, silty clay and medium-dark-gray carbonaceous clay. Light-gray glauconitic fossiliferous sand, thin beds of sandstone, and massive accumulations of fossil oyster shells occur locally in the upper part of the formation in western AL (Tombigbee Sand Member). In eastern AL thin to thick-bedded accumulations of the fossil oyster Ostrea cretacea Morton occur throughout much of the formation.
Light-gray thin to thick-bedded quartzose sandstone and conglomerate containing interbedded dark-gray shale, siltstone, and coal. Mapped on Lookout Mountain, Blount and Chandler Mountains, and Sand Mountain northeats of Blount County, and on the mountains of Jackson, Marshall and Madison Counties north and west of the TN river.
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.
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.
Light-gray limestone, partly oolitic near top; fine to very coarse-grained bioclastic crinoidal limestone common; light-gray chert nodules and concretions are scattered throughout and are abundant locally. The apparent thickness of the formation in this province varies due to differential dissolution of the carbonate in the unit.
Yellowish-gray to olive-gray compact fossiliferous clayey chalk and chalky marl. The unconformable contact at the base is characterized by a bed of glauconitic, chalky sand containing phosphate pellets and molds of fossils. The Arcola Limestone Member at the top consists of two to four beds of light-gray brittle, dense, fossiliferous limestone seperated by beds of light-gray to pale-olive calcareous clay.
Light-gray to medium-light-gray compact, brittle chalk overlain by abundantly fossiliferous chalky marl, very clayey chalk, and calcareous clay (Bluffport Marl Member). In south-central Montgomery County the Demopolis is split into two eastward extending tongues by a westward-extending tongue of the Cusseta Sand Member of the Ripley Formation. The lower tongue is pale-olive to yellowish-gray silty to finely sand, micaceous, fossiliferous chalk that eastward becomes more sandy and merges with the Cusseta in central Bullock County. The upper tongue is yellowish-gray clayey, very finely sandy, micaceous chalk that merges with the Ripley in southeastern Montgomery County.
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.
Very light to light-olive-gray, thin to thick-bedded fine to coarse-grained bioclastic (abundant pelmatozoans) limestone containing abundant nodules, lenses and beds of light to dark-grey chert. Upper part of formation locally consists of light-bluish-gray laminated siltstone containing vugs lined or filled with quartz and scattered throughout the formation are interbeds of medium to greenish-gray shale, shaly limestone and siltstone. Commonly present below the Fort Payne is a light-olive-gray claystone or shale (Maury Formation) which is mapped with the Fort Payne. The apparent thickness of the Fort Payne in this province varies due to differnetial dissolution of carbonate in the formation.
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).
Light-gray to light-brown locally sandy dolomite, dolomitic limestone, and limestone; characterized by abundant light-colored chert.
Greenish-gray calcareous, glauconitic, fossiliferous clayey sand; marl; carbonaceous sand; carbonaceous silty clay; and coarse glauconitic, fossiliferous, quartz sand.
Light-gray to pale-olive massive, micaceous, glauconitic, fossiliferous fine sand; sandy calcareous clay; and thin indurated beds of fossiliferous sandstone.
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.
Dark-gray massive plastic clay in western AL with a thin bed of glauconitic shell marl at the top (Mathews Landing Marl Member). Becomes calcareous eastward grading into light-greenish-gray calcareous, micaceous, clayey fine to medium sand, medium-gray sandy, calcareous clay and white to light-gray thin bedded partly clayey, fossiliferous limestone. East of Crenshaw County, owing to lithologic similarity, beds correlative with the Porters Creek are included in the Clayton Formation.
White to yellowsih-gray argillaceous limestone occurs in the upper part (McBryde Limestone Member): the lower part is medium-gray fossiliferous calcareous silt, glauconitic sand and thin beds of sandy limestone and calcareous sandstone (Pine Barren Member). At the base of the formation in southeast AL is a gravelly medium to coarse sand containing clay pebbles. The formation thins west of Wilcox County and westward from Thomaston in eastern Marengo County is mapped with the Porters Creek Formation. The formation is generally deeply weathered and fresh exposures are rare. In western areas exposures consist of weathered white to yellowish-gray argillaceous, fossiliferous sandy limestone, ferruginous sand, and fossiliferous sandstone. In eastern areas exposures consist of residual accumulations of chert boulders, moderate-reddish-orange sand, and clay containing masses and thin layers of iron minerals (limonite-goethite).
Medium-gray bioclastic and oolitic limestone, containing interbeds of dusky-red and olive-green mudstone in the upper part.
Upper part consists of cross-bedded fine to coarse sand and white, dark-gray and pale-red-purple mottled clay containing lignite, sand, and kaolin; lower part consists of dark-gray laminated to thin-bedded silty clay and abundantly micaceous, carbonaceous, fossiliferous very fine to fine sand. The Providence Sand extends eastward from southeastern Lowndes County into Georgia.
Interbedded dark-green phyllite, medium-gray to light-brown and black metasiltstone, dark-green feldspathic metagraywacke, and light-gray and dark-gray medium to coarse-grained arkosic quartzite and metaconglomerate; graphitic phyllite common in upper part. In Cleburne and Calhoun Counties, rocks mapped as the Lay Dam include the Abel Gap Formation of Bearce (1973) and consist of interbedded greenish-gray metasiltstone and quartzite, black phyllitic metasiltstone, medium-gray to greenish-gray arkosic quartzite, and dark-gray pyritic quartzite. In Clay Chounty the upper part of the Lay Dam includes black graphitic sericite phyllite and slate reportedly containing plant fossils (Erin Slate Member).
The Blufftown extends from the Chattahoochee River Valley westward into central Russell County where it is divided into two westward-extending tongues by an eastward-extending tongue of the Mooreville Chalk. In the Chattahoochee River Valley the Blufftown is mainly glauconitic calcareous fine sand, micaceous clay and marl, fossiliferous clay, gray calcareous fossiliferous sandstone, and carbonaceous clay and silt. To the west the lower tongue of the Blufftown is gravelly sand, glauconitic sand, calcareous clay, and sandy clay and merges with the lower part of the Mooreville Chalk in southwestern Macon County. The upper tongue is mainly calcareous sandy clay and micaceous silty fine sand with thin layers of limestone and sandstone. The upper tongue merges with the Mooreville Chalk and the lower part of the Demopolis Chalk in western Bullock County.
Wedowee Group undifferentiated includes the Cragford Phyllite and Cutnose Gneiss. Cragford Phyllite -- interbedded fine-grained graphite-chlorite-sericite schist and phyllite, garnet-sericite schist and phyllite, graphite-quartz-sericite phyllite, locally feldspathic biotite gneiss, calc-silicate rock, and quartzite. Cutnose Gneiss -- cyclically interbedded fine-grained quartz-biotite feldspathic gneiss, graphite-chlorite-sericite schist, locally thin interbeds of graphite-quartz-sericite phyllite, and quartzite. Rocks in the area northeast of Clanton in Chilton and Coosa Counties that are here assigned to the Wedowee Group also have been interpreted as part of the Higgins Ferry Group.
Interbedded dark-gray shale, siltstone, medium-gray sandstone, and coal in cyclic sequences. The members present in the Cahaba synclinorium in descending order include: the Straven Conglomerate Member, Rocky Ridge Sandstone Member, and Chestnut Sandstone Member. The members present in the Coosa synclinorium in descending order include: Straight Ridge Sandstone Member and Wolf Ridge Sandstone Member.
Highly fossiliferous, glauconitic, quartz sand and lenses of greenish-gray clay; occurs between MS state line and AL River.
Light-gray oolitic limestone containing interbedded argillaceous, bioclastic, or dolomitic limestone, dolomite, and medium-gray shale.
Light-gray to moderate-reddish-orange clayey, gravelly fine to very coarse sand; massive mottled sandy clay; local wood and leaf beds; and thin beds of indurated sandstone. Gravel consists mainly of quartz and quartzite and range in size from very fine pebbles to large cobbles. Mapped eats of the Tallapoosa River.
Light-colored thick-bedded to massive quartzose sandstone, containing interbeds of dark-gray shale.
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.
Parkwood Formation -- Interbedded medium to dark-gray shale and light to medium-gray sandstone; locally contains dusky-red and grayish-green mudstone, argillaceous limestone, and clayey coal. Floyd Shale -- Dark-gray shale, sideritic in part; thin beds of sandstone, limestone and chert are locally present; beds of partly bioclastic, partly argillaceous limestone are abundant in parts of Calhoun and Cherokee Counties.
Medium-gray bioclastic and oolitic limestone, containing interbeds of dusky-red and olive-green mudstone in upper part.
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.
Light to dark-gray finely to coarsely crystalline, medium to thick-bedded dolomite containing minor greenish-gray shale and light-bluish-gray chert. In the Columbiana area of Shelby County, the Conasauga is dominated by thin to medium-bedded, dark-gray dolomitic limestone and minor dark-gray shale. In Bibb County and southwestern Shelby County, the Conasauga consists of medium-bluish-gray fine-grained, thin-bedded argillaceous limestone and interbedded dark-gray shale. In the eastern Valley and Ridge the lower part includes dark-green to pale-olive fossiliferous shale with a few dark-gray limestone interbeds.
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.
Mesocratic to melanocratic, fine to coarse-grained, massive to strongly foliated, locally sheared quartz diorite gneiss.
Cross-bedded, medium to coarse sand; glauconitic, fossiliferous fine sand; and dark-gray fossiliferous, micaceous, carbonaceous clay. The member occurs at the base of the Ripley Formation and extends from Georgia westward into Montgomery County where it merges with the Demopolis Chalk.
Layered and massive amphibolite; locally includes hornblende migmatite and ultramafic pods.
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.
Fine-grained feldspathic biotite gneiss; medium to coarse-grained muscovite-biotite-garnet schist; locally kyanite and sillimanite. Many of the schists have been retrograded to chlorite-garnet-quartz-sericite schist. Both mi and migr extensively cut by feldspathic dikes and pegmatites.
Medium-bluish-gray fine-grained, thin-bedded argillaceous limestone and interbedded dark-gray shale in varying proportions.
Coarse to medium-grained biotite granite gneiss; locally includes thick bands of epidote and thin, small amphibolite bodies. Boundary between Rock Mills Granite Gneiss and Camp Hill Granite Gneiss arbitrarily defined.
Interbedded muscovite +/- garnet-biotite schist, metagraywacke, calc-silicate rock, and quartzite; rare thin amphibolite. Includes thin layers of aluminous graphitic schist. Locally sheared to mylonite schist.
Medium to dark-gray shale, containing one to three units of a variable combination of sandstone and limestone in the lower part; locally contains rare interbeds of dusky-red and greenish-gray mudstone.
Camp Hill Granite Gneiss - coarse to medium-grained foliated granite to quartz diorite (tonalite) gneiss, locally biotite-rich; locally contains thin amphibolite pods and lenses. Boundary between Rock Mills Granite Gneiss and Camp Hill Granite Gneiss arbitrarily defined.
Feldspathic biotite-hornblende gneiss with thin layers of amphibolite, calc-silicate rock, garnet quartzite, and muscovite schist; locally rich in manganese.
Medium-gray shale, containing interbedded limestone, dolomite, argillaceous sandstone, dusky-red and grayish-olive mudstone, and minor shaly coal. Mainly restricted to northeastern AL and part of the Sequatchie anticline. Where less than 100 feet thick the formation is included in the Bangor Limestone.
Very light-gray to light-bluish-gray firm sandy, fossiliferous brittle chalk and grayish-black silty sandy calcareous glauconitic, fossiliferous clay; semi-indurated beds of sandy, clayey limestone are present in some exposures. Abscent locally in parts of Marengo, Dallas and Wilcox Counties where overlapped by the Clayton Formation or eroded. The Prairie Bluff thins eastward from southwestern Lowndes County to northern Pike County where it interfingers with the Providence Sand.
Light-gray partly oolitic limestone; very coarse bioclastic crinoidal limestone common; light-gray chert nodules and concretions locally abundant.
Grayish-green, medium-gray, and medium-bluish-gray calcareous sandy metasiltstone interbedded with minor greenish-gray fine to coarse-grained metasandstone and rare thin lenses of calcite and dolomite marble; an interval of greenish-gray to dark-gray phyllitic quartzite or quartz-pebble metaconglomerate is locally present near the base. The Heflin underlies the Lay Dam Formation and overlies the rocks tentatively identified as the Chilhowee Group undifferentiated.
Light-gray to light-brown locally sandy dolomite, dolomitic limestone, and limestone; characterized by abundant light-colored chert.
Light-gray thick-bedded to massive pebbly quartzose sandstone, containing varying amounts of interbedded dark-gray shale, siltstone, and thin discontinuos coal. In both the Cahaba and Coosa synclinoria the members in descending order include: the Pine Sandstone Member and the Shades Sandstone Member. Top of unit is mapped at top of Pine Sandstone Member.
Dark-gray shale, sideritic in part; thin beds of sandstone, limestone and chert are locally present; beds of partly bioclastic, partly argillaceous limestone are abundant in parts of Calhoun and Cherokee Counties.
Light to dark-gray thick-bedded micritic and peloidal limestone and minor dolomite.
Coarse-grained granodiorite to quartz monzonite with large plagioclase augen; generally shared among margins.
Variegated thinly interbedded mudstone, shale, siltstone, and sandstone; limestone and dolomite occur locally. Quartzose sandstone commonly present near top of formation.
Light-gray to dark-bluish-gray thick-bedded dolomite and interbedded light-gray limestone; includes abundant chert.
Interbedded medium to dark-gray shale and light to medium-gray sandstone; locally contains dusky-red and grayish-green mudstone, argillaceous limestone, and clayey coal.
Grayish-white to yellowish-orange massive, thick-bedded, fine-grained, locally argillaceous, locally fossiliferous metachert and light to dark-greenish-gray fine to medium-grained fissile quartz-sericite-chlorite phyllite and schist which locally includes thin chlorite phyllite and quartzose phyllite beds.
Light-gray to dark-bluish-gray thick-bedded dolomite and interbedded light-gray limestone; includes abundant chert.
Light to medium-gray arkose, arkosic conglomerate, and discontinous mudstone overlain by greenish-gray mudstone with minor siltstone and sandstone; dominantly light-gray pebbly quartzose sandstone in upper part.
Medium to coarse-grained quartz-plagioclase +/- almandine +/- kyanite +/- biotite-muscovite schist, graphite-muscovite-quartz schist, and quartzite containing biotite. Large porphyroblasts of muscovite, andalusite and/or chiastrolite common. Rocks in the areas between Goodwater in Coosa County and Millerville in Clay County that are here assigned to the Hackneyville Schist also have been interpreted as part of the Higgins Ferry Group.
Thinly layered coarse to fine-grained biotite-feldspar-quartz gneiss, sericite-feldspar-muscovite schist, +/- biotite +/- garnet-muscovite schist, and biotite-garnet feldspathic gneiss; locally common pegmatites.
Banded amphibolite interlayered with chlorite schist, chlorite amphibolite, chlorite-actinolite schist, chlorite +/- magnetite quartzite, and actinolite quartzite; may include small ultramafic pods.
Higgins Ferry Group; Roscoelite-graphite-quartz schist and graphitic quartzite
Tuscumbia Limestone -- light-gray partly oolitic limestone; very coarse bioclastic crinoidal limestone common; light-gray chert nodules and concretions locally abundant. Fort Payne Chert -- very light to light-olive-gray, thin to thick-bedded fine to coarse-grained bioclastic (abundant pelmatozoans) limestone containing abundant nodules, lenses and beds of light to dark-grey chert. Upper part of formation locally consists of light-bluish-gray laminated siltstone containing vugs lined or filled with quartz and scattered throughout the formation are interbeds of medium to greenish-gray shale, shaly limestone and siltstone. Lenses of dark-gray siliceous shale occur locally at the base of the Fort Payne in Wills Valley. Commonly present below the Fort Payne is a ligh-olive-gray claystone or shale (Maury Formation) which is mapped with the Fort Payne. The Tuscumbia and Fort Payne are undifferentiated in Murphrees and Wills Valleys.
Interbedded medium to dark-gray shale and light to medium-gray sandstone; locally contains dusky-red and grayish-green mudstone, argillaceous limestone, and clayey coal.
Dark-gray to grayish-green thin-bedded, micaceous metasiltstone, slate, and fine-grained quartzite.
Interbedded quartzose to slightly feldspathic sandstone and laterally continous conglomerate in ledge-forming units seperated by greenish-gray silty mudstone.
Medium to fine-grained migmatitic, locally garnetiferous biotite-feldspar gneiss, commonly saturated with granitic pods.
Blastomylonite, mylonite gneiss, locally includes mylonite schist and mylonite quartzite in Towaliga fault zone.
Agricola Schist - biotiite +/- garnet +/- sillimanite-feldspar-quartz schist, interlayered with thin-bedded dark-brown hornblende amphibolite; contains pegmatite pods and veins.
Medium to coarse-grained multiply foliated +/- plagioclase +/- garnet-biotite-muscovite-quartz schist interlayed with chlorite-biotite-garnet schist, typically mylonitic.
Dark-green to black fine to coarse-grained, layered to massive amphibolite mixed with zones of chlorite actinolite schist, includes all amphibolite associated with the Poe Bridge Mountain Group.
Sequatchie Formation -- grayish-red and yellowish-gray calcareous shale containing interbedded fossiliferous limestone. Elkmont Formation -- medium to dark-gray phosphatic limestone with interbeds of light to medium-gray and black shale. Leipers Limestone -- medium to dark-gray thin to medium-bedded fossiliferous limestone containing interbeds of argillaceous limestone. Inman Formation -- interbedded greenish-gray or moderate to dusky-red shale and light-gray peloidal limestone. Nashville Group undifferentiated -- medium to dark-gray argillaceous and fossiliferous limestone overlain by yellowish-gray laminated silty limestone. Stones River Group -- medium to dark-gray thick to thin-bedded limestone, argillaceous in part, locally very fossiliferous.
Coarse to fine-grained feldspathic graphite schist, +/- staurolite +/- kyanite +/- sillimanite-muscovite-biotite schist, and garnet-biotite-muscovite schist, and gneiss; locally common pegmatites. Rocks in the area of Turkey Heaven Mountain in Cleburne and Randolph Counties that are here assigned to the Poe Bridge Mountain Group also have been interpreted as part of the Wedowee Group.
Pale-green to light-olive-brown massive, fine-grained greenstone interbedded locally with well-foliated mafic phyllite.
Principally graphitic sericite (muscovite)-quartz schist; includes sericite-quartz phyllonite; sericite phyllonite, blastomylonite, porphyroclastic blastomylonite schist, and mylonite quartzite occur principally along margins in south and form most of unit northeast of Jacksons Gap, Tallapoosa County.
Tuscumbia Limestone -- light to dark-gray fossiliferous and oolitic partly argillaceous and cherty limestone. Apparently present only along part of the northwest limb of the Coosa synclinorium. Fort Payne Chert -- dark-gray to light-gray limestone with abundant irregular light-gray chert nodules and beds. Commonly present below the Fort Payne is greenish-gray to grayish-red phosphatic shale (Maury Formation) which is mapped with the Tuscumbia Limestone and Fort Payne Chert undifferentiated.
Bluish-gray or pale-yellowish-gray thick-bedded siliceous dolomite; characterized by coarsely crystalline porous chert.
Grayish-green to black micaceous, partly carbonaceous to graphitic slate and metasiltstone containing interbedded light-gray to light-brown fine to coarse-grained metasandstone.
Light-gray finely to coarsely crystalline, thick-bedded siliceous dolomite; characterized by abundant stromatolitic chert. Mapped seperately only in the Birmingham anticlinorium where overlying units within the Knox Group are absent beneath the post-Knox unconformity.
Light to medium-gray thick-bedded coarsely crystalline dolomite.
Light-gray oolitic limestone containing interbedded argillaceous, bioclastic, or dolomitic limestone, dolomite, and medium-gray shale.
Fine-grained biotite-oligoclase gneiss intermixed with coarse-grained muscovite-biotite schist; locally contains muscovite-rich pegmatite.
Quartz monzonite to granite with strong gneissic texture, cut by small pegmatites and aplite dikes, generally elongate; semiconcordant to foliation of country rock.
Interbedded yellowish-gray to moderate-red sandstone, siltstone and shale; greenish-gray to moderate-red fossiliferous partly silty and sandy limestone; few thin hematitic beds.
Dark-reddish-brown to olive-gray partly fossiliferous, mostly fine-grained sandstone interbedded with siltstone and shale; minor amounts of bioclastic limestone and conglomerate sandstone; includes hematitic beds and beds of ferruginous sandstone, outcrops in northeastern AL are finer grained and include more limestone.
Medium to dark-gray thick to thin-bedded partly argillaceous, locally fossiliferous limestone. Restricted to the western part of the Valley and Ridge province and Murphrees Valley and Wills Valley anticlines. Locally includes a thin interval of Attalla Chert Conglomerate Member at base. Attalla Chert Conglomerate - conglomerate of pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of chert and rare dolomite and quartzite in a sand-sized matrix; thin beds of gray-green or dusky-red shale common at base.
Rocks in the area of Turkey Heaven Mountain in Cleburne and Randolph Counties that are here assigned to the Poe Bridge Mountain Group also have been interpreted as part of the Wedowee Group.
Leucocratic, fine to medium-grained, well-foliated quartz monzonite to granite; locally porphyritic.
Medium to dark-gray thick to thin-bedded partly argillaceous, locally fossiliferous limestone. Restricted to the western part of the Valley and Ridge province and Murphrees Valley and Wills Valley anticlines. Locally includes a thin interval of Attalla Chert Conglomerate Member at base. Attalla Chert Conglomerate - conglomerate of pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of chert and rare dolomite and quartzite in a sand-sized matrix; thin beds of gray-green or dusky-red shale common at base.
Light-gray oolitic limestone, argillaceous and in part bioclastic with interbeds of medium to dark-gray shale.
Leucocratic granite, granodiorite, and trondhjemite; locally well foliated, numerous pegmatites. Includes unnamed granitoids in Chilton County.
Ultramafic rock including enstatite pyroxenite, layered actinolite-tremolite amphibolite altered locally to serpentine, anthophyllite, and talc; metanorite; metagabbro; hornblendite; garnet-hornblendite, and massive amphibolite.
Tuscumbia Limestone -- light to dark-gray fossiliferous and oolitic partly argillaceous and cherty limestone, absent locally and too thin to map seperately. Fort Payne Chert -- dark-gray to light-gray limestone with abundant irregular light-gray chert nodules and beds. Commonly present below the Fort Payne is greenish-gray to grayish-red phosphatic shale (Maury Formation) which is mapped with the Tuscumbia Limestone and Fort Payne Chert undifferentiated.
Unnamed unit comprised of masses of medium- to coarse-grained muscovite-biotite schist, locally garnetiferous; grades into oa.
Muscovite-quartz schist; locally contains biotite-garnet-muscovite schist, many layers conatin sillimanite (northeast of Mount Jefferson, Lee County); kyanite (west of Mount Jefferson); locally muscovite-rich schist and quartzite common.
Variably mylonitized coarse-grained biotite-muscovite-oligoclase gneiss with large potassium feldspar augen.
Grayish-red, grayish-green, and yellowish-gray thin-bedded calcareous shale and calcareous mudstone containing interbedded fossiliferous limestone, and medium-gray to moderate-red partly sandy and glauconitic, medium to coarse-grained bioclastic limestone. In Jackson County, includes the Leipers Limestone and Inman Formation.
Interbedded medium to dark-gray shale and light to medium-gray sandstone, locally contains lithic conglomerate, dusky-red and grayish-green mudstone, argillaceous limestone, and clayey coal.
Leucocratic quartz diorite (tonalite) to quartz monzonite or trondhjemite, locally foliated.
Medium-gray bioclastic and oolitic limestone, containing interbeds of dusky-red and olive-green mudstone in upper part.
Interlayered muscovite-quartz schist and quartzite, locally contains garnet, sillimanite and graphite; commonly intensely shared.
Light-colored thick-bedded to massive quartzose sandstone, containing interbeds of dark-gray shale.
Unnamed diamictite facies of Lay Day Formation in Coosa and Chilton Counties consists of cobbles and boulders of carbonate, pelitic rocks, quartzite, chert, felsic plutonic rocks, and gneiss in a metagraywacke matrix.
Medium to dark-gray fossiliferous limestone, argillaceous in part; yellowish-gray laminated silty limestone in upper part. Contains one or more thin beds of bentonite and bentonitic shale.
Light-colored thick-bedded to massive quartzose sandstone, containing interbeds of dark-gray shale.
Feldspathic muscovite-biotite schist and quartz-diorite gneiss; locally contains lenses of muscovite-graphite schist and amphibolite; commonly cut by feldspathic veins and pegmatites.
Medium to dark-gray shale, containing one to three units of a variable combination of sandstone and limestone in the lower part; locally contains rare interbeds of dusky-red and greenish-gray mudstone.
Biotite-epidote quartz diorite gneiss and biotite-hornblende gneiss; locally includes migmatitic amphibolite; cut by numerous granitic veins.
Dark-gray argillaceous, fossiliferous medium to thick-bedded limestone; locally contains rare chert in upper part and an interval of fenestral mudstone in lower part (Mosheim Limestone Member of the Lenoir Limestone). Between Siluria and Pelham in Shelby County, the Little Oak and Lenoir Limestones are seperated by a tongue of the Athens Shale.
Coarse to fine-grained feldspathic biotite-sericite-quartz-muscovite schist, commonly containing staurolite, garnet, and locally sillimanite in northeastern outcrop areas includes zones of aluminous graphite schist, hornblende quartzite, garnet quartzite, and rare amphibolite. Schist commonly retrograded to sericite-garnet-quartz schist. Numerous granitic pegmatites.
Leucocratic quartz-rich quartz diorite pencil gneiss.
Interbedded medium to dark-gray shale and light to medium-gray sandstone, locally contains lithic conglomerate, dusky-red and grayish-green mudstone, argillaceous limestone, and clayey coal.
Grayish-green micaceous metasiltstone and minor phyllite; grayish-green fine to medium-grained pyritic metasandstone in middle to upper part.
Dark-green to black fine to coarse-grained, thin-layered to massive hornblende-actinolite amphibolite; includes all amphibolite associated with the Higgins Ferry and Hatchet Creek Groups.
Longview Limestone - light to medium-gray thick-bedded cherty limestone and dolomite, locally sandy.
Light-brown to light-gray coarse-grained, feldspathic quartzite and metaconglomerate in lower part of Wash Creek Slate.
Interbedded yellowish-gray to moderate-red sandstone, siltstone and shale; greenish-gray to moderate-red fossiliferous partly silty and sandy limestone; few thin hematitic beds.
Black graptolitic shale, locally contains interbedded dark-gray limestone.
Lower unnamed shale facies in eastern Valley and Ridge consists of dark-green to pale-olive fossiliferous shale with a few dark-gray limestone interbeds.
Mesocratic to leucocratic, strongly lineated granite to granodiorite.
Medium to dark-bluish-gray thick-bedded siliceous dolomite; characterized by locally abundant chert with irregular cavities.
Irregular zones of sericite-quartz schist (+/- garnet) containing finely disseminated graphite, possibly infolded Wedowee Group equivalents. Both mi and migr extensively cut by feldspathic dikes and pegmatites.
Medium to dark-gray shale, containing one to three units of a variable combination of sandstone and limestone in the lower part; locally contains rare interbeds of dusky-red and greenish-gray mudstone.
Mylonite and blastomylonite; contains minor ultramylonite, mylonite schist, and mylonite gneiss.
Medium to dark-gray thick to thin-bedded limestone, argillaceous in part, locally very fossiliferous. Contains a zone of bentonite and bentonitic shale near the top. Mapped seperately from the Nashville Group only in Jackson County.
Light to medium-gray thin to thick-bedded dolomite marble; contains intraclast-bearing dolomite, locally sandy in middle part.
Quartzite containing minor mica, feldspar, and pyrite; locally arkosic; commonly sheared.
Very light to light-olive-gray, thin to thick-bedded fine to coarse-grained bioclastic (abundant pelmatozoans) limestone containing abundant nodules, lenses and beds of light to dark-grey chert. Upper part of formation locally consists of light-bluish-gray laminated siltstone containing vugs lined or filled with quartz and scattered throughout the formation are interbeds of medium to greenish-gray shale, shaly limestone and siltstone. Commonly present below the Fort Payne is a light-olive-gray claystone or shale (Maury Formation) which is mapped with the Fort Payne.
White to light-gray medium to coarse-grained arkosic quartzite and metaconglomerate.
Leucocratic, fine to medium-grained, locally foliated trondhjemite containing abundant muscovite and locally biotite and epidote.
Dark-green to dark-gray hornblende amphibolite, extensively sheared and folded, and locally retrograded to actinolite-tremolite-chlorite schist. Includes all amphibolite associated with the Wedowee Group.
Graphite-garnet-muscovite schist with interlayered metagraywacke.
Light-gray to light-brown dolomite marble associated with abundant light-gray to white massive to moderately foliated metachert.
Medium-bluish-gray fine-grained, thin-bedded argillaceous limestone and interbedded dark-gray shale in varying proportions.
Rocks in the area of Turkey Heaven Mountain in Cleburne and Randolph Counties that are here assigned to the Poe Bridge Mountain Group also have been interpreted as part of the Wedowee Group.
Dusky-red and medium-gray phyllite and slate interlayered with light-brown to light-gray feldspathic metasiltstone, fine-grained metasandstone and dolomite marble.
White to light-bluish-gray medium to coarse-grained, locally conglomeratic thick-bedded quartzose sandstone. Possible Devonian fossils.
Leipers Limestone -- medium to dark-gray thin to medium-bedded fossiliferous limestone containing interbeds of thin argillaceous limestone. Mapped in Sequatchie Valley. Inman Formation -- interbedded greenish-gray or moderate to dusky-red shale and light-gray peloidal limestone. Mapped in Sequatchie Valley.
Massive to laminated greenish-gray and black micaceous mudstone containing minor interbeds of siltstone and very fine-grained sandstone.
Athens Shale -- black graptolitic shale, locally contains interbedded dark-gray limestone. Lenoir Limestone -- dark-gray medium to thick-bedded argillaceous limestone; locally contains an interval of fenestral mudstone at the base (Mosheim Limestone Member).
Dusky-red micaceous slate and phyllite, locally containing interbedded micaceous arkosic quartzite and metasiltstone; locally at the base is interbedded calcite and dolomite marble.
Light-olive-gray and dusky-red calcareous shale interbedded with light to dark-gray fine to coarse-grained partly bioclastic, argillaceous, locally glauconitic limestone.
Dark-gray thick-bedded siliceous dolomite; characterized by locally abundant chert containing irregular cavities.
Medium- to dark-gray argillaceous and fossiliferous limestone overlain by yellowish-gray laminated silty limestone. Mapped seperately from the Stone River Group only in Jackson County.
Medium to fine-grained, massive to thin-bedded quartzite and metaconglomerate and thin beds of graphitic quartz schist, locally contains small garnets.
Unnamed comprised of masses of interbedded grayish-green sericite phyllite and sericite-quartz-chlorite phyllite.
Moderate-pink to light-gray calcite and locally dolomite marble.
Dark-gray medium to thick-bedded fossiliferous, argillaceous to silty limestone containing chert nodules. Locally includes thin beds of bentonite in the upper part.
Bangor Limestone -- medium-gray bioclastic and oolitic limestone, containing interbeds of dusky-red and olive-green mudstone in upper part. Monteagle Limestone -- light-gray oolitic limestone containing interbedded argillaceous, bioclastic, or dolomitic limestone, dolomite, and medium-gray shale.
Dark-gray shale and mudstone, locally containing thin interbeds and lenses of dark-greenish-gray sandstone includes probable Floyd Shale in area east of Gadsden, Etowah County.
Interbedded greenish-gray or moderate to dusky-red shale and light-gray peloidal limestone. Mapped in Sequatchie Valley.
Unnamed unit comprised of masses of well-foliated quartz dacite.
Wayne Group - medium-gray, greenish-gray, and moderate-red argillaceous limestone; moderate-red and greenish-gray shale; and grayish-green fossiliferous limestone with scattered pink calcite crystals. Brassfield Limestone - greenish-gray to light-brownish-gray argillaceous, dolomitic, cherty, sandy, glauconitic limestone.
Quartz monzonite to granite gneiss in dikes and sheets with wide migmatite zones at contacts.
Conglomerate of pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of chert and rare dolomite and quartzite in a sand-sized chert and quartz matrix; thin beds of gray-green or dusky-red shale common at base.
Light to dark-gray sandstone with thin dark-gray shale interbeds, light-gray to black dolomudstone, glauconitic limestone, and fossiliferous chert locally in lower part.
Variegated dusky-red and dark-yellowish-orange shale, calcareous mudstone, limestone, siltstone, and minor sandstone.
Fossiliferous chert facies in vicinity of Jemison, Chilton County, contains marine invertabrate fossils of early to Middle Devonian age.
Light to dark-grey thick-bedded limestone and dolomite, cherty in part.
Dusky-red to light-olive-gray siltstone, sandstone, shale, and dolomite, regular but uneven bedding.
Dark-gray shale and mudstone, locally containing thin interbeds and lenses of dark-greenish-gray sandstone includes Athens Shale and probable Floyd Shale in the structural windows near Anniston, Calhoun County.
Light-gray quartzose sandstone, pebbly in part. Locally contains thin beds of bentonite in the upper part.
White and pale-blue to light-gray calcite marble locally containing interlayered dolomite marble and thin phyllite layers.
Conglomerate of pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of chert and rare dolomite and quartzite in a sand-sized chert and quartz matrix; thin beds of gray-green or dusky-red shale common at base.
Medium-gray shale, containing interbedded limestone, dolomite, argillaceous sandstone, dusky-red and grayish-olive mudstone, and minor shaly coal. Mainly restricted to eastern part of Interior Low Plateaus province and where less than 100 feet thick the formation is included in the Bangor Limestone.
In the area south of Talladega, Talladega County, the unit includes greenish-gray chlorite-sericite phyllite; in small area south of Childersburg the unit consists of greenish-gray chlorite-sericite phyllite and slate locally containing interbeds of metagraywacke; and in the area east of Columbiana, Shelby County, the unit includes dark-greenish-gray slate and metasiltstone containing interbedded coarse-grained to conglomerate quartzite.
Fort Payne Formation - Bedded chert; calcareous and dolomitic silicastone; minor limestone and shale; scattered lenses of crinoidal limestone. Thin green shale (Maury) at base. Average thickness about 250 feet (475 in Wells Creek area); and Chattanooga Shale - Black carbonaceous shale, fissile. Thickness 0 to 70 feet; average about 20 feet. (Mapped as MDc on East-Central and East sheets)
Light-gray oolitic limestone containing interbedded argillaceous, bioclastic, or dolomitic limestone, dolomite, and medium-gray shale.
Higgins Ferry Group; Garnet quartzite (garnetite) and garnitiferous altered mafic rock.
Little Oak Limestone -- dark-gray medium to thick-bedded fossiliferous, argillaceous to silty limestone containing chert nodules. Locally includes thin beds of bentonite in the upper part. Newala Limestone -- light to dark-gray thick-bedded micritic and peloidal limestone and minor dolomite.
Light to medium-gray argillaceous, silty to siliceous calcite and dolomite marble interbedded with phyllite and quartzite, locally cherty.
Light to medium-gray thick-bedded coarsely crystalline dolomite.
Brownish-black organic shale containing light to dark-gray sandstone and rare limestone interbeds near the base.
Unnamed unit comprised of masses of epidote-hornblende-oligoclase mylonitic gneiss and amphibolite.
Variegated dusky-red and pale-yellowish-orange shale, calcareous mudstone, dolomite, siltstone, and minor sandstone. Mapped in areas of facies transition with the Chickamauga Limestone (Scraper Mountain) and in the structurally complex area at the east end of Dry Creek Mountain.
Variegated dusky-red and pale-yellowish-orange shale, calcareous mudstone, dolomite, siltstone, and minor sandstone. Mapped in areas of facies transition with the Chickamauga Limestone (Canoe Creek, Dunaway, and Hensley Mountains).
White to medium-gray medium to coarse-grained arkosic quartzite and metaconglomerate.
Poorly sorted, light-gray chert gravel in a matrix of silt and sand; locally interbedded with sand and clay lenses. Thickness 0 to 150 feet.
Crushed schistose rock; includes sericite-graphite-rich rocks.
Ultramafic pods and sheets, principally enstatite-hypersthene pyroxenite with hornblende and actinolite alteration assemblages.
The Citronelle Formation is widespread in the Gulf Coastal Plain. The type section for the Citronelle Formation, named by Matson (1916), is near Citronelle, Alabama. The Citronelle Formation grades laterally, through a broad facies transition, into the Miccosukee Formation of the eastern Florida panhandle. Coe (1979) investigated the Citronelle Formation in portions of the western Florida panhandle. The Citronelle Formation is a siliciclastic, deltaic deposit that is lithologically similar to, and time equivalent with, the Cypresshead Formation and, at least in part, the Long Key Formation (Cunningham et al., 1998) of the peninsula. In the western panhandle, some of the sediments mapped as Citronelle Formation may be reworked Citronelle. The lithologies are the same and there are few fossils present to document a possible younger age. The Citronelle Formation consists of gray to orange, often mottled, unconsolidated to poorly consolidated, very fine to very coarse, poorly sorted, clean to clayey sands. It contains significant amounts of clay, silt and gravel which may occur as beds and lenses and may vary considerably over short distances. Limonite nodules and limonite-cemented beds are common. Marine fossils are rare but fossil pollen, plant remains and occasional vertebrates are found. Much of the Citronelle Formation is highly permeable. It forms the Sand and Gravel Aquifer of the surficial aquifer system.
Interlayered biotite-epidote-muscovite-quartz schist, metagraywacke, and quartzite.
Loam, sand, gravel and clay.
Red sand and gravel and white clay; may be of Pliocene age; the formation mapped is equivalent to the Willis sand and does not include the terrace deposits, colluvium, and residuum commonly considered "Citronelle".
Grayish-red, grayish-green, and yellowish-gray thin-bedded calcareous shale and calcareous mudstone containing interbedded fossiliferous limestone, and medium-gray to moderate-red partly sandy and glauconitic, medium to coarse-grained bioclastic limestone.
Light-gray coarse to fine-grained dolomite marble; locally rich in phlogopite.
Grayish-green sand, fine-grained, glauconitic, micaceous; interbedded with gray laminated clays which commonly contain carbonized or silicified wood. (Mapped with Coffee except in Hardin County and southeastern Decatur County.) Thickness 0 to 180 feet; thins northward.
Leucocratic, massive epidote-muscovite quartz diorite to granodiorite; weak flow banding, sharp contacts.
Irregularly bedded gray sand and sandstone; mottled red and gray, green, and chocolate-colored clay; some quartzite, and some gravel; the Paynes Hammock sand, sandy limestone cross-bedded fine green sand, and thin-bedded sand and clay, is mapped with the underlying Chickasawhay limestone in eastern MS.
White massive, indurated fossiliferous limestone containing lenses and irregular beds of soft, friable limestone. Exposed only at Salt Mountain, on the upthrow side of the Jackson fault 5 miles south of Jackson, Clarke County.
Poorly sorted arkosic sandstone and conglomerate containing interbedded greenish-gray siltstone and mudstone. The Cochran Formation is exposed only in northeastern Calhoun and northwestern Cleburne Counties.
Reddish and greenish shale and siltstone; fine-grained dolomite; and minor fragmental and oolitic limestone. Thickness 240 to 360 feet.
The Atlantic Coastal Ridge is underlain by the Anastasia Formation from St. Johns County southward to Palm Beach County. Excellent exposures occur in Flagler County in Washington Oaks State Park, in Martin County at the House of Refuge on Hutchinson Island and at Blowing Rocks in Palm Beach County. An impressive exposure of Anastasia Formation sediments occurs along Country Club Road in Palm Beach County (Lovejoy, 1992). The Anastasia Formation generally is recognized near the coast but extends inland as much as 20 miles (32 kilometers) in St. Lucie and Martin Counties. The Anastasia Formation, named by Sellards (1912),is composed of interbedded sands and coquinoid limestones. The most recognized facies of the Anastasia sediments is an orangish brown, unindurated to moderately indurated, coquina of whole and fragmented mollusk shells in a matrix of sand often cemented by sparry calcite. Sands occur as light gray to tan and orangish brown, unconsolidated to moderately indurated, unfossiliferous to very fossiliferous beds. The Anastasia Formation forms part of the surficial aquifer system.
Bangor Limestone - Dark brownish-gray limestone, thick-bedded. Thickness 70 to 400 feet., and Hartselle Formation - Thin-bedded, fine-grained sandstone interbedded with gray shale; with oolitic and coarse-grained limestone beds locally. Thickness 0 to 80 feet.
Mainly fragmental and oolitic, light-gray limestone; blocky bryozoan chert weathers from base. Thickness 180 to 300 feet.
Light and vari-colored irregularly bedded sand, clay, and gravel; gravel is mostly in lower portion.
St. Louis Limestone - Fine-grained, brownish-gray limestone, dolomitic and cherty. Thickness 80 to 160 feet.; and Warsaw Limestone - Mainly medium- to coarse-grained, gray limestone, crossbedded. Includes much calcareous sandstone and shale to the north. Thickness 100 to 130 feet.
Bangor Limestone - Dark brownish-gray limestone, thick-bedded. Thickness 100 to 250 feet; and Hartselle Formation - Thin-bedded, fine-grained sandstone and greenish-gray shale interbedded with coarse limestone. Thickness 0 to 60 feet.
St. Louis Limestone - Fine-grained, brownish-gray limestone, dolomitic and cherty. Thickness 100 to 280 feet; and Warsaw Limestone - Coarse-grained, gray, crossbedded limestone; somewhat shaly in the northeast. Thickness 40 to 150 feet.
Gizzard Group - Sandstone, conglomeratic sandstone, siltstone, shale, and minor coal. Thickness 100 to 200 feet. Includes Warren Point Sandstone - Gray to brown sandstone and minor conglomeratic sandstone. Thickness 60 to 160 feet; Raccoon Mountain Formation - Siltstone, sandstone, shale, and minor coal. Thickness 0 to 65 feet.
Fragmental and oolitic limestone, light-gray; and fine-grained, brownish-gray limestone. Thickness 180 to 350 feet.
Fort Payne Formation - Bedded chert and calcereous and dolomitic silicastone; minor coarse-grained limestone and shale. Thin green shale (Maury) at base. Thickness about 200 feet. Chattanooga Shale - Black carbonaceous shale, fissile. Thickness 0 to 70 feet.
More or less cross-bedded and thinly laminated glauconitic sand and clay; basal part includes the McShan formation, greenish-gray, micaceous, locally very glauconitic, very fine-grained sand and thin-bedded light-gray clay, small chert gravels may be present in basal beds, not recognized in northern Tishomingo County.
Pennsylvanian undifferentiated
Lookout Sandstone; Sewanee Sandstone
Undifferentiated Quaternary Sediments - Much of Florida's surface is covered by a varying thickness of undifferentiated sediments consisting of siliciclastics, organics and freshwater carbonates. Where these sediments exceed 20 feet (6.1 meters) thick, they were mapped as discrete units. In an effort to subdivide the undifferentiated sediments, those sediments occurring in flood plains were mapped as alluvial and flood plain deposits (Qal). Sediments showing surficial expression of beach ridges and dunes were mapped separately (Qbd) as were the sediments composing Trail Ridge (Qtr). Terrace sands were not mapped (refer to Healy [1975] for a discussion of the terraces in Florida). The subdivisions of the Undifferentiated Quaternary Sediments (Qu) are not lithostratigraphic units but are utilized in order to facilitate a better understanding of the State's geology. The siliciclastics are light gray, tan, brown to black, unconsolidated to poorly consolidated, clean to clayey, silty, unfossiliferous, variably organic-bearing sands to blue green to olive green, poorly to moderately consolidated, sandy, silty clays. Gravel is occasionally present in the panhandle. Organics occur as plant debris, roots, disseminated organic matrix and beds of peat. Freshwater carbonates, often referred to as marls in the literature, are scattered over much of the State. In southern Florida, freshwater carbonates are nearly ubiquitous in the Everglades. These sediments are buff colored to tan, unconsolidated to poorly consolidated, fossiliferous carbonate muds. Sand, silt and clay may be present in limited quantities. These carbonates often contain organics. The dominant fossils in the freshwater carbonates are mollusks.
Grayish-green sand, fine-grained, glauconitic, micaceous; interbedded with gray laminated clays which commonly contain carbonized or silicified wood. Maximum preserved thickness 80 feet; absent to the north.
Sand, silt, clay, and gravel. As much as 60 feet thick in flood plains of Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; in smaller streams generally less than 20 feet thick.
Sandstone, shale, and limestone.
Ordovician [units] including Richmond Group (which includes Mannie Shale - Olive-gray shale. Thickness 0 to 20 feet; Fernvale Limestone - Massive, coarsely crystalline, gray limestone with varicolored grains. Thickness 0 to 50 feet; Sequatchie Formation - Olive-gray and greenish-gray shale, mudstone, and argillaceous limestone; dolomitic, laminated, and sandy. Thickness 0 to 100 feet; and Arnheim Formation Nodular, shaly, gray limestone. Thickness 0 to 20 feet; the Maysville Group (which includes Leipers Formation - Nodular, shaly limestone; fine- to coarse-grained limestone; and phosphatic calcarenite locally. Thickness 0 to 150 feet); the Eden Group (which includes the Inman Formation - Thin-bedded to laminated, fine-grained, gray limestone with shale partings. Thickness 0 to 50 feet); and the Nashville Group (which includes Catheys Formation - Nodular, shaly limestone; fine- to coarse-grained limestone; phosphatic calcarenite; and light-gray cryptograined limestone. Thickness 50 to 175 feet.)
Highly variegated clay shale, distinctive; contains siltstone and locally gray, fine-grained sandstone. Thickness 400 to 700 feet.
Nashville Group - Bigby-Cannon Limestone - Brownish-gray phosphatic calcarenite and light-gray to brownish-gray, cryptograined to medium- grained, even-bedded limestone. Thickness 50 to 125 feet; and Hermitage Formation - Thin-bedded to laminated, sandy and argillaceous limestone with shale; nodular shaly limestone; coquina; and phosphatic calcarenite. Thickness 50 to 100 feet.
Phyllite and Quartzite
Gizzard Group - Shale, siltstone, sandstone, and conglomerate; from base of Sewannee Conglomerate to top of Mississippian. Thickness 0 to 520 feet, including Signal Point Shale - Mostly dark-gray to light-brown shale, with minor siltstone. Wilder coal near top. Thickness 0 to 180 feet, average about 60 feet; Warren Point Sandstone - Sandstone and conglomeratic sandstone, gray to brown, fine- to medium-grained, locally interbedded with shale containing coal. Thickness 0 to 300 feet, thins from southeast to northwest, average thickness about 100 feet; Raccoon Mountain Formation - Shale, siltstone, and sandstone. Bon Air coal near top; White Oak and Sale Creek coals near base. Thickness 0 to 260 feet.
Limestone, chert, and shale of Meramec, Osage, and Kinderhook age.
Phyllite undifferentiated
Knox Group undifferentiated
(In areas mapped as Dcfm one or both units may be locally absent) - Chattanooga Shale -- Brownish-black organic shale containing light to dark-gray sandstone and rare limestone interbeds near the base. Frog Mountain Sandstone -- light to dark-gray sandstone with thin dark-gray shale interbeds, light-gray to black dolomudstone, glauconitic limestone, and fossiliferous chert locally in lower part.
Reddish and greenish shale and siltstone; fine-grained dolomite; dark-gray limestone; and thin-bedded sandstone. Persistent dolomite bed at base. Thickness 150 to 400 feet.
Frog Mountain
Silurian Formations - Characteristically light olive-gray to greenish-gray, with variable reddish-brown color in some areas. Individual formations are generally uniform in thickness, except where truncated by pre- Chattanooga erosion. Most formations are slightly thicker (than indicated) in Wells Creek Basin. Includes Decatur Limestone- Thick-bedded, medium- to coarse-grained limestone, gray with reddish-brown grains. Thickness 0 to 70 feet; Brownsport Group (which includes Lobelville Formation - Shale with thin beds of limestone. Thickness 0 to 30 feet; Bob Limestone - Thick-bedded, medium-grained limestone, locally oolitic. Thickness 0 to 25 feet; and Beech River Formation - Shale with thin beds of limestone. Thickness 0 to 60 feet); Wayne Group (which includes Dixon Formation - Green and reddish-brown argillaceous limestone, shale, and mudstone. Thickness 0 to 40 feet; Lego Limestone - Even-bedded, olive-gray limestone with scattered reddish-brown grains. Thickness 0 to 30 feet; Waldron Shale - Greenish-gray fossiliferous shale. Thickness 0 to 5 feet; Laurel Limestone - Even-bedded, olive-gray limestone with scattered reddish-brown grains. Thickness 0 to 30 feet; Osgood Formation - Greenish- and reddish-gray shale and argillaceous limestone. Thickness 0 to 15 feet); and Brassfield Limestone - Thin-bedded cherty limestone, locally glauconitic. Thickness 0 to 50 feet; generally about 20 feet.
Poorly sorted, light-gray chert gravel in a matrix of silt and sand; locally interbedded with sand and clay lenses. Thickness 0 to 140 feet.
Newala Limestone
Lookout Sandstone; Gizzard Formation
Chickamauga Group; Middle Ordovician rocks; Rockmart Slate
West of the Apalachicola River, the Hawthorn Group is replaced by the Alum Bluff Group. The Alum Bluff Group includes the Chipola Formation, Oak Grove Sand, Shoal River Formation, Choctawhatchee Formation and the Jackson Bluff Formation (Huddlestun, 1984; Braunstein et al., 1988). The formations included in this group are generally defined on the basis of their molluscan faunas and stratigraphic position (Schmidt and Clark, 1980). Puri (1953) described sediment facies as they relate to the formations of the Alum Bluff Group These sediments are lithologically distinct as a group, not as individual units. Brooks (1982) mapped much of the Alum Bluff Group as the Shoal River Formation. The Alum Bluff Group crops out or is beneath a thin overburden in the western panhandle from river valleys in Okaloosa County eastward to western Jackson County. The Alum Bluff Group consists of clays, sands and shell beds which may vary from fossiliferous, sandy clays to unfossiliferous sands and clays and occasional carbonate beds (Huddlestun, 1984). Mica is a common constituent and glauconite and phosphate occur sporadically. Induration varies from essentially nonindurated in sands to well indurated in carbonate lenses. Colors range from cream to olive gray with mottled reddish brown in weathered sections. Sand grain size varies from very fine to very coarse with sporadic occurrences of gravel. These sediments generally have low permeabilities and are part of the intermediate confining unit/aquifer system.
Wells Creek Formation - Gray limestone and dolomite, with angular chert blocks and fragments; and minor shale, mottled red and green, calcareous. Thickness 0 to 50 feet. (Present only in Sequatchie Valley.); and Knox Group (above Copper Ridge Dolomite) - Gray, cherty dolomite and limestone, fine- to medium-grained. Maximum exposed thickness in Sequatchie Valley 600 feet. (Units in Onc are also mapped as OCk on the West-Central Sheet)
Stream alluvium and undifferentiated terrace deposits
Devonian Formations - Characterized by marked north-south facies variations. Because of pre-Chattanooga and/or pre-Cretaceous warping and erosion, the distribution and thickness of Devonian formations is very irregular. Includes Pegram Formation - Thick-bedded, gray limestone and gray sandstone. Thickness 0 to 15 feet; Camden Formation - Light-gray novaculitic chert and tripolitic clay; and minor siliceous limestone. Thickness 0 to about 100 feet; Harriman Formation - Light-gray novaculitic chert and tripolitic clay; and minor siliceous limestone. (Harriman and Camden are differentiated paleontologically.) Thickness 0 to 50 feet; Flat Gap Limestone - Thick-bedded, coarse-grained limestone, gray with red and brown grains. Thickness 0 to 55 feet; Ross Formation - Siliceous limestone; gray and variegated shale; and medium-grained glauconitic limestone. Thickness 0 to 75 feet.
Sequatchie Formation - Greenish-gray calcareous shale, mudstone, and argillaceous limestone; dolomitic, laminated, and sandy. Thickness 0 to 165 feet; Leipers Formation - Nodular, shaly limestone and fine- to coarse-grained limestone. Thickness 0 to 150 feet; Inman Formation - Thin-bedded to laminated, fine-grained, greenish-gray limestone interbedded with red and green calcareous shale beds. Thickness 0 to 50 feet. (Present only in Sequatchie Valley.); and Catheys Formation - Nodular, shaly, thin- to medium-bedded limestone and fine- to coarse-grained limestone. Thickness 125 to 400 feet.
Medium- to very thick-bedded, fine- to medium-grained, gray dolomitic limestone, with prominent greenish-gray calcareous shale and shaly limestone unit in middle. Thickness 200 to 275 feet.
Includes Fort Payne Chert, Chattanooga Shale in Dade Co.; Fort Payne Chert at top, Chattanooga Shale in middle and Armuchee Shale at bottom in all areas except Polk Co. and Dade Co.; Fort Payne Chert, and Armuchee Chert in Polk Co. CHATTANOOGA Shale (Dc)
Mylonite and ultramylonite
Bigby-Cannon Limestone - Dark- to light-gray, dense to medium-grained, medium- and even-bedded limestone. Thickness 80 to 150 feet; and Hermitage Formation - Gray, fine-grained, thin-bedded to laminated, sandy and argillaceous limestone; shale, weathers yellowish-brown; and nodular, shaly limestone. Thickness 50 to 100 feet.
Medium- to very thick-bedded, fine-grained, gray limestone; thin-bedded, nodular and shaly, greenish-gray limestone in places. Thickness 200 to 500 feet.
Thin-bedded limestone, gray to yellowish-brown, slightly dolomitic, with thin calcareous shale partings. Thickness about 100 feet.
Chickamauga Group undivided
Includes Pennington Shale, Bangor Limestone (except in Floyd County), Hartselle Sandstone, Golconda Formation, Gasper Limestone, Ste. Genevieve Limestone and St. Louis Limestone
Fine-grained, yellowish-brown limestone; thin-bedded in upper part; thicker bedded and very slightly cherty with scattered mottlings of magnesian limestone in lower part. Contains thin bentonite beds. Thickness 60 to 250 feet.
Laurel Limestone - Dolomitic limestone, mottled yellowish-gray to yellowish-green, fine-grained. Thickness 0 to 10 feet. (Present only in Macon County); Osgood Formation - Grayish-green shale. Thickness 0 to 10 feet. (Present only in Macon County.); and Brassfield Formation - Olive-gray, fine-grained cherty limestone to the north, merging into olive-gray calcareous shale to the south. Thickness 60 to 130 feet. (Present only in Sequatchie Valley.)
Bedded chert, calcareous and dolomitic, somewhat crinoidal; and minor shale. Thin green shale (Maury) at base. Average thickness about 200 feet.
Dall and Harris (1892) referred to the limestones exposed near Ocala, Marion County, in central peninsular Florida as the Ocala Limestone. Puri (1953, 1957) elevated the Ocala Limestone to group status recognizing its component formations on the basis of foraminiferal faunas (biozones). Scott (1991) reduced the Ocala Group to formational status in accordance with the North American Stratigraphic Code (North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, 1983). The Ocala Limestone consists of nearly pure limestones and occasional dolostones. It can be subdivided into lower and upper facies on the basis of lithology. The lower member is composed of a white to cream-colored, fine to medium grained, poorly to moderately indurated, very fossiliferous limestone (grainstone and packstone). The lower facies may not be present throughout the areal extent of the Ocala Limestone and may be partially to completely dolomitized in some regions (Miller, 1986). The upper facies is a white, poorly to well indurated, poorly sorted, very fossiliferous limestone (grainstone, packstone and wackestone). Silicified limestone (chert) is common in the upper facies. Fossils present in the Ocala Limestone include abundant large and smaller foraminifers, echinoids, bryozoans and mollusks. The large foraminifera Lepidocyclina sp. is abundant in the upper facies and extremely limited in the lower facies. The presence of these large foraminifers in the upper facies is quite distinctive. The Ocala Limestone is at or near the surface within the Ocala Karst District in the westcentral to northwestern peninsula and within the Dougherty Plain District in the north-central panhandle (Scott, in preparation). In these areas, the Ocala Limestone exhibits extensive karstification. These karst features often have tens of feet (meters) of relief, dramatically influencing the topography of the Ocala Karst District and the Dougherty Plain District (Scott, in preparation). Numerous disappearing streams and springs occur within these areas. The permeable, highly transmissive carbonates of the Ocala Limestone form an important part of the FAS. It is one of the most permeable rock units in the FAS (Miller, 1986).
Red Mountain Formation
Blufftown Formation
Fine-grained, yellowish-brown limestone; thin-bedded in upper part; thicker bedded and very slightly cherty with scattered mottlings of magnesian limestone in lower part. Contains thin bentonite beds. Thickness 50 to 100 feet.
Granite Gneiss/ Granite
Biotite gneiss