The Talladega slate belt in eastern Alabama represents a crystalline thrust sheet composed of low-grade metasediments. Three major lithologic sequences comprise the Talladega slate belt: (1) the Kahatchee Mountain Group, (2) the Sylacauga Marble Group, and (3) the Talladega Group. The contact relationships between the Sylacauga Marble Group and the Talladega Group indicate that the phyllites and slates of the Talladega Group rest unconformably on marbles of the Sylacauga Marble Group. Previous workers have identified specific stratigraphic sequences within the Talladega Group both in the north-central portion of the Talladega slate belt and in the southern portion of the belt. Little work has been carried out in the south-central portion of the Talladega slate belt, a region intermediate between areas to the northeast and southwest where the regional stratigraphy has been defined. To the northwest in Cleburne and Clay Counties, Alabama, the Talladega Group has been broken down into the Heflin Phyllite, the Able Gap Formation, and the Chulafinnee Schist. To the southwest in Chilton County, Alabama, similar units have been mapped as the Lay Dam Formation, the Butting Ram Sandstone, and the Jemison Chert. These units have not been mapped through this intermediate south-central region of the Talladega slate belt because of the absence by faulting of a major sandstone unit, the Cheaha Quartzite, which has been used for regional correlation. Another prominent unit, the Jemison Chert, which outcrops to the southeast of the Cheaha Quartzite, continues across this region and was used to correlate the regional stratigraphy from the northeast with that in the southwest. Detailed mapping has shown that a small slice of paper-thin quartzites of the Jemison Chert interval has overridden the Cheaha Quartzite. The geometric relationships between these two units, the differing petrologic character of these ridge-forming lithologies, the duplication of the Jemison Chert interval, and the emplacement of this imbricate slice of Jemison, in addition to structural fabric data, suggest that this termination of the Cheaha Quartzite is fault related.

The age of the Erin Shale, Clay County, Alabama, has been variously interpreted based primarily upon the acceptance or rejection of the original Carboniferous age assignment. The failure to confirm the in-place occurrence of the reported Pennsylvanian megafossils, coupled with both regional and detailed mapping, has led to the recent placement of the Erin Shale in a stratigraphically equivalent position with the Lay Dam Formation of inferred Early Devonian age. An investigation of the previously illustrated Carboniferous fossils reportedly collected from the Erin Shale and suites of rock specimens collected during the present study has added new pieces to the Erin puzzle but has not resolved the age asignment problem. Petrographic and x-ray diffraction powder analyses of the adhering matrix on Lepidostrobus hobbsii D. White and phyllites collected from the Erin outcrop belt indicate that these rocks are similar if not indistinguishable. Identifiable coal fragments exist in the Erin as do poorly preserved, unassignable fossil plant fragments. Much additional work is needed to fully define the fossiliferous nature of the Erin.