The Starkey sand unit is named from the Amerada "Starkey Fee" No. 1, completed in 1944 as the discovery well for Millar Field in Sacramento Valley, California.

The sands represent a transgressive-regressive, shallow sea depositional environment and occupy an area in the subsurface approximately 85 miles long and 40 miles at the greatest width.

The northerly extension of the Starkey sand is progressively truncated by Eocene Capay shale. Capay is also found truncating the Starkey on the northwest, while the southwest portion shales into what was a deeper depositional area. Along the eastern edge the Starkey laps onto basement and does not crop out.

The Starkey sand is the youngest Upper Cretaceous unit in the Sacramento Valley and the top thereby represents the Paleocene-Cretaceous and Eocene-Cretaceous contact over a large area. Fauna are scarce and poorly preserved, but those found are included in Goudkoff's C¹, D-1 and D-2 Zones.

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