Analysis of subsurface data from deep tests drilled in the northern Mississippi embayment and southern Mid-Continent suggests that earliest Paleozoic sedimentation was dominated by the tectonic evolution of the Reelfoot rift.

Throughout most of the Mid-Continent, the Upper Cambrian Lamotte (Mt. Simon) Sandstone rests nonconformably on Precambrian basement and is overlain by the Bonneterre (Eau Claire) Formation. However, in the area of the Reelfoot rift, both the Lamotte and Bonneterre grade into thick, basinal shales that locally display evidence of episodic deposition of coarse clastics, perhaps on submarine fans.

Moreover, two major sedimentary units are present beneath the Lamotte-Bonneterre basinal facies within the Reelfoot rift. Immediately underlying the Lamotte-Bonneterre shale is a carbonate stratum (probably dolomite) that thickens to more than 1,000 ft (300 m) along the axis of the basin in eastern Arkansas. Underlying this carbonate is a detrital unit that grades from arkosic sandstone near the northern terminus of the basin to a basinal shale southward. This basinal shale is at least several hundred feet thick near the axis of the basin. These two strata occupy the stratigraphic position of the Conasauga (Middle Cambrian) and Rome (Lower Cambrian) Formations of the southern Appalachians.

The axial and transverse distribution of these strata suggests that the Reelfoot evolved as paired grabens or half grabens during the Early and Middle Cambrian. Subsequently, the Reelfoot remained the axis for more widespread subsidence and sedimentation throughout much of the Paleozoic.

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