This was probably a function of the reduction in gradient to the sea during this period as sea level rose and the resulting reduction in competence of the streams. This interval of the core consists mostly of gray slickensided mudstone with red mottles and occasional green mottles and variable silt content. The finer grained members of this interval contain more red mottling than the coarser grained members. This facies was deposited from suspension during inundation of a flood plain by a river or rivers. The generally gray color of the sediment tells us that it was saturated with reduced water following deposition.
Red mottles show that oxygenated water penetrated the sediment in places.
Some mottles are in a rootlet pattern, showing that openings made by roots provided pathways for oxygen to enter the sediment. Core recovery in this interval was generally poor. The medium-grained sand of this interval contains planar rather than trough crossbeds, which show a preferred direction of dip. This interval is a classic fining-upward channel fill. The decreases in grain size and in scale of bedforms upward reflect a reduction in flow rate associated with shoaling, as the main axis of the flow gradually moved away from the point of deposition.