These beds directly overlie the sandstones of the Brownstones Formation, also of Devonian age, which form the bulk of the hill.
The Hastings Beds are divided into three formations: Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation 130–400 ft; Wadhurst Clay Formation 100–230 ft, shales with bands of sandstone and iron ore; and the Ashdown Formation 160–700 ft; sandstones.
The Waitemata sandstones and mudstones form the cliffs around the Waitemata Harbour and East Coast Bays, and land further north up to Cape Rodney, with outcrops further south down to Mercer and Miranda.
The continental sandstones and siltstones of the Abu Zenima Formation represent the earliest syn-rift deposits of late Oligocene (Chattian) to early Miocene (Aquitanian) age.
The area is a popular spot for surfing, since powerful waves from the Atlantic Ocean rise up over rocky reefs formed by hard sandstones of the Table Mountain Group.
A QFL diagram or QFL triangle is a type of ternary diagram that shows compositional data from sandstones and modern sands, point counted using the Gazzi-Dickinson method.
The Kinnerton Sandstone Formation (named from the twin villages of Higher and Lower Kinnerton on the England/Wales border west of Chester) is a sequence which ranges from 0m to over 150m thickness of largely aeolian sandstones of early Triassic age.
Many important fossils have been found in the sandstones and clays of the Weald, including, for example, Baryonyx.