Twenty thousand feet or more of Tertiary and Quaternary sediments are present in the central Gulf region of southern United States. They comprise a large, seaward-thickening, wedge-shaped sedimentary complex (Gulf Coast geosyncline) composed predominantly of deltaic deposits. Thin, relatively uniform and widespread, marine strata are present between the thick deltaic deposits and on the seaward edges of the deltaic masses. These thin, generally distinctive, marine strata are adaptable on the surface to detailed structural mapping; they also serve as key strata in core drilling, in tracing surface units into the subsurface, and in the preparation of subsurface structural maps. Fossils present in the marine units determine their position in the standard geological time scal and assist in determining the relative geographic position at the time of deposition. The thick, ladle-shaped, deltaic deposits are normally unadaptable to structural mapping; however, they are readily used in the construction of areal, facies, and isopachous maps. Landward, both marine and deltaic deposits are replaced by brackish-water and fluviatile sediments; seaward, the marine deposits are progressively of a deeper-water environment, the deltaic deposits are progressively more marine.

The Tertiary is represented by four, perhaps five, epochs of deposition, which are, in ascending order, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene (?). Each successively younger series of rocks occupies an outcrop position progressively nearer the present coastline. Similarly, each younger rock series has been downwarped less by the thick, geosynclinal sedimentary load and, therefore, has less southwest regional dip. The Midway (Paleocene), Claiborne (middle Eocene), Jackson (upper Eocene), and Vicksburg (Oligocene) groups each contain important marine units. The Wilcox (lower Eocene), Miocene, and Pliocene (?) are primarily deltaic deposits; they constitute the thickest Cenozoic sedimentary accumulations in the eastern Gulf region.

The Quaternary is represented by two epochs of deposition, the Pleistocene and Recent. These deposits are characteristically fluviatile gravels, sands, silts, and clays; they border or fill alluvial valleys and were deposited during or subsequent to the Pleistocene glaciation.

The outcrop patterns of the major rock divisions of the Central Gulf Coastal Plain are illustrated by areal geologic maps and stratigraphic sections. The thickness and structural configuration of each division is shown by isopachous and structural contour maps. Representative electrical logs illustrate the electrical pattern of each rock division.