Correlation of the basal Cretaceous beds of the Southeastern States

The basal Cretaceous deposits that fringe the inner margin of the Coastal Plain from eastern Alabama to central North Carolina, where they are overlapped by
Miocene sands, have been commonly classified as of Lower Cretaceous age and correlated roughly with the Patuxent formation of the Potomac group of Maryland and Virginia. In this paper the evidence on which this early correlation was based is reviewed, later evidence is considered, and the conclusion is reached that all the basal Cretaceous deposits in the area under consideration are of Upper Cretaceous age. Acknowledgments are gratefully made of the helpful criticism of the manuscript by L. W. Stephenson and of his generous assistance in the preparation of the correlation table.