Loam, sand, gravel, and clay; mapped only in Mississippi River Alluvial Plain.
Green and bluish-green clay, sandy clay, and sand; gray siltstone and sand; locally fossiliferous.
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".
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.
Irregularly bedded fine to coarse sand, more or less lignitic clay and lignite; includes bauxite bearing Fearn Springs sand member at base.
(Claiborne group), Irregularly bedded sand, clay, and some quartzite.
(Claiborne group), Southeast of Pearl River predominantly more or less glauconitic claystone and clay with lenses of sand and some sandstone; highly cross-bedded sand at base; northwest of Pearl river predominantly sand, locally glauconitic, containing claystone and clay lenses and abundant clay stringers; Neshoba sand, sparingly glauconitic fairly coarse sand not recognized southeast of Newton County or north of Yalobusha River.
Yazoo clay, green and gray calcareous clay containing some sand and marl; Moodys Branch formation at base, shells embedded in glauconitic clayey quartz sand.
(Selma group), Chalk and marly chalk containing fewer impurities than underlying and overlying formations.
(Claiborne group), Irregularly bedded, more or less laminated liginitic clay, sand, and lignite; sparingly glauconitic.
(Midway group), Dark-gray clay, north of Clay County contains slightly glauconitic, micaceous sand lenses.
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.
(Claiborne group), Zilpha clay, chocolate-colored clay containing some glauconitic sand, not recognized north of Yalobusha River; Winona sand, highly glauconitic sand, more or less clayey.
Loam, sand, gravel and clay.
Chickasawhay limestone, sandy limestone, and sand, present only in eastern MS (mapped with it is the overlying Paynes Hammock sand of Miocene age); Vicksburg group, predominantly limestone and marl, but contains some bentonite and near the top, chocolate-colored clay and some sand.
(Selma group), Gray to greenish-gray fine glauconitic sand, clay, and sandy limestone; south of Oktibbeha County is very sandy micaceous chalk.
Forest Hill sand, cross-bedded fine gray sand, laminated fine sand and clay, and a little lignite; in Wayne and Clarke Counties lower part merges eastward into Red Bluff clay, blue-green glauconitic, gypsiferous, fossiliferous clay and thin limestone beds.
(Selma group), Light-gray cross-bedded to massive glauconitic sand and sandy clay and calcareous sandstone.
(Claiborne group), Southeast of Pearl River, marl, limestone, glauconitic sand, and chocolate-colored clay; northwest of Pearl River, predominantly chocolate-colored clay with some glauconitic sand.
(Midway group), Upper part, greenish-gray coarsely glauconitic sandy clay and marl; lower part, crystalline sandy limestone and loose sand, represented south of Houston by a discontinuous bed of indurated calcareous sandstone.
(Selma group), Marly chalk and calcareous clay.
Massive fine glauconitic sand.
(Midway group), Fine to coarse micaceous sand, kaolin, and bauxitic clay.
(Selma group), Prairie Bluff chalk, compact brittle chalk, sandy chalk, and calcareous clay; at base contains many phosphatic molds of fossils; in Ponotoc and Union Counties merges northward into Owl Creek formation, tough blue glauconitic sandy clay.
Light and vari-colored irregularly bedded sand, clay, and gravel; gravel is mostly in lower portion.
(Selma group), Red and white cross-bedded micaceous sand and white sandy clay.
Limestone, chert, and shale of Meramec, Osage, and Kinderhook age.
Sandstone, shale, and limestone.
Alluvial deposits in major stream channels or in mappable meanders of major streams - Includes alluvial deposits in natural levees in some areas.
Gray to brownish gray clay and silty clay, reddish brown in the Red River Valley, some sand and gravel locally.
Clayey and sandy silt, gray to brown, massive. Maximum thickness about 100 feet along bluffs of Mississippi River; thins eastward. (Minimum mapped thickness 4 feet.)
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.
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.
Chattanooga shale (Carboniferous or Devonian) and underlying limestones of Early Devonian age.
Irregularly bedded sand, locally interbedded with lenses and beds of gray to white clay, silty clay, lignitic clay, and lignite. Thickness more than 400 feet.
Gray and brown silt, silty clay, some very fine sand, reddish brown along the Red River.
Sand, silt, clay, and gravel. In flood plain of Mississippi River more than 100 feet thick; in smaller streams generally less than 20 feet thick.
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 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.
Fossiliferous, micaceous sand, silty and glauconitic; locally fossiliferous sandy clay at base. Siderite concretions common in upper part. Thickness about 140 feet.
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.
Loose fine-grained sand, light-gray, sparsely glauconitic, locally interbedded with laminated lignitic clay. Thickness 25 to 200 feet; thins northward.
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.
Marl and calcareous clay, light-gray, fossiliferous, locally glauconitic and sandy. Merges northward into sands mapped as Kcc. Maximum thickness 180 feet.
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.
Predominantly sand, in places interbedded with silty light-gray clays. Fine-grained sand at base, locally contains heavy minerals. Thickness about 300 feet.
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.
Highly fossiliferous, glauconitic, quartz sand and lenses of greenish-gray clay; occurs between MS state line and AL River.
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.
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.
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.
Midway Group - includes Porters Creek Clay - Pale-brown to brownish-gray, massive, blocky clay; locally contains glauconitic sand. Thickness 130 to 170 feet. Also includes Clayton Formation- Glauconitic sand, argillaceous and locally fossiliferous; at base in Hardeman County is an impure fossiliferous limestone. Thickness 30 to 70 feet.
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.
Iron-stained gravel, sand, silt, and clay; variable in thickness but generally less then 60 feet thick.
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.
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.
Sandy clay, greenish gray, glauconitic, fossiliferous; merges northward into unfossiliferous clays and sands. Thickness 0 to about 40 feet.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Tan to orange clay, silt, and sand with a large amount of basal gravels.
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.
Alluvial deposits on one or more terrace levels
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.
Light gray to light brown clay, sandy clay, silt, sand, and some gravels.
Alluvial deposits of local streams or of overbank flow of major streams - In some areas includes deposits in abandoned meanders of major streams
Tan to orange clay, silt, and sand with a large amount of basal gravels. Overlain by 1-9 meters of loess.
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.