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COQUINAS OF THE NEUSE FORMATIONand Wheeler (1969) and also to the strata in the area that aredepositionally related to the coquina as described below.DESCRIPTION OF THE COQUINAS ANDRELATED BEDSThe best exposure of the coquina and associated strata isto be found on the north bank of Snows Cut west of the US421 bridge (Figure 1) (Site 24 of Carter and others, 1988).The coquina at Snows Cut ranges from a medium to verycoarsely grained fossiliferous sand to an arenaceous fossiliferouslimestone; the siliciclastic fraction ranges from 32% to54% of the mass (Table 1 ). The dominant grains are subangularto rounded monocrystalline quartz and well roundedmolluscan shell fragments. These are weakly to moderatelycemented with blocky calcite. Molds after various aragoniticbioclasts are abundant but aragonitic shells and shell fragmentsare still in abundance as well as shells of calcitizedaragonite. Grain size, though moderately to well sortedthroughout, is not constant (Table 1). There are coarser zoneswhich contain whole molluscan shells, especially Mercenaria,Busycon, Crassostrea, and Rangia. These zones areup to 0.5 meters thick and traceable across the whole outcrop.Shells are generally concave down and imbricate suggestinga southerly transport direction. Trough crossstratification,though weakly marked, also indicates a southerlytransport direction. The coquina at the west end of thenorth bank of Snows Cut has a maximum thickness of 1 .5meters and pinches rapidly eastward and westward. Those onthe south bank are over 2 meters thick but generally present apoorer exposure.The coquina at Snows Cut is overlain by an unlithifiedarenaceous shell hash or marl (Figure 3). Dominant grainsare like that of the coquina; monocrystalline quartz androunded shell fragments with the siliciclastic fraction representing34% to 46% of the mass (Table 1 ). Grain size distributionsof the siliciclastic fraction are comparable to those ofthe coquina (Table 1 ). Scattered throughout are well-preservedmolluscan shells, but none are in growth position,none are articulated, and most but not all exhibit somedegree of abrasion (Dockal 1995b). Like the coquina there isa weak sense of imbrication and cross-stratification. Cementis absent except for a minor amount of pendant cementwithin some of the shelter pores and meniscus calcite cementnear the base of the arenaceous shell hash.The contact with the underlying coquina is a rapid gradationin the degree and type of cementation. Dockal(1995b) interpreted this to have resulted from diagenesisnear the paleo-water table. The shell hash proper with itspendent cements lying within the vadose lone, the coquinawith its blocky calcite cement lying within the phreatic lone,and the boundary area with the meniscus cement representthe capillary fringe just above the water table.Overlying the shell hash and the coquina where the shellhash is absent is a medium to coarse grained, moderately topoorly sorted, near symmetrical to coarse skewed, platykurticto leptokurtic sand (Table 1 }. The sand is nonindurated tomoderately indurated with ferruginous cement. The color ofthe sand ranges from a pale yellow to black. Sedimentarystructures are generally absent but one can observe zoneswhere larger grains, granules and pebbles occur within thestill poorly sorted sand. These when tracked laterally passinto the coarser shell bearing zones of the shell hash orcoquina. On the north side of Snows Cut and about halfwaybetween the main coquina outcrop and the US 421 bridge alens of finer and better sorted sand occurs within this sandlayer (Table 1, samples SCN-40, 51, 55}. This lense hasweakly marked trough cross-stratification and some burrows.The boundary between these two sand types is very indistinctsuggesting that the finer sand my have been a lowerenergy phase with less carbonate bioclasts. At the easternend of Snows Cut several dark brown to black horizons canbe seen within the sand layer. These appear to be only zonesof enrichment of iron oxides and have no relation to a sedimentarystructure or to fossil soil horizons.The contact between the sand and the underlying shellhash or coquina is a very distinct and undulatory surfacewhere the overlying sand appears to literally interfinger in avertical sense with the underlying shell hash or coquina. Thesand forms cylindrical bodies 0.2 to 0.4 meters in diameterwhich project into the underlying material a meter or more.Dockal (1995b} described these as "fingers" and Moorefield(1978} referred to them as "potholes." They represent ageochemical front along which carbonated material dissolved.The sand, which sits above this surface, is the insolubleresidue left over after dissolution of all the carbonatefrom the shell hash or coquina. The sand has the same graintypes and grain size distribution as that of the insoluble residuesfrom the shell hash and coquina (Table 1 }.At the top of this sand layer is a well-marked nearly horizontallying paleosol. Overlying this is finer grained sandthat is moderately to well sorted. This sand is directly relatedto some of the Holocene dunes in the immediate area such asSugar Loaf within Carolina Beach State Park just to thesouth of Snows Cut. Overlying this are spoils from the constructionof the canal.What underlies the sand and where present, the coquinaat Snows Cut is not as well understood. Recent drilling bythe U.. S. Army Corps of Engineers just east of the bridgerevealed 610 7 meters of gray green sands with abraded shelldebris and bands of shells and greenish gray silty sand sittingbelow the ferruginous sand (Ben Lackey, personal communication1996). This material appears to be little different outsideof color from the main sand noted above and theunlithified shell hash.The coquina and associated beds at Fort Fisher (Figure1) are very similar to those of Snows Cut. The cross stratificationof the coquina is easier to see but this is more a reflec-13