The Tennessee Mountain Formation was named for highly deformed limestones and argillites along the southern and western flanks of Tennessee Mountain, T. 45 N., R. 55 E., in the southern Rowland Quadrangle (Coash, 1967; Bushnell, 1967).

The Tennessee Mountain Formation is considered Cambrian or Lower Ordovician based upon brachiopod fauna (Bushnell, 1967; Coats, 1985). It is unconformably overlain by the Sunflower Formation.

The Tennessee Mountain Formation is composed of interbedded non-fossiliferous limestones and phyllite. The limestones are thin bedded, medium gray, light yellow or gray weathering, aphanitic silty limestone with thin greenish phyllite laminae. Phyllite beds 10 to 50 feet thick are locally interbedded with the limestone. The greenish-brown phyllite is non-resistant and poorly exposed (Bushnell, 1967). Limestone is predominant in northern, and phyllite in southern exposures within the Rowland Quadrangle (Bushnell, 1967).

An unnamed Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician unit in the Snake Mountains may correlate with the Tennessee Mountain Formation. This unit consists of contorted siliceous and silty dark gray, brownish and olive green shale, and clay shale which are locally phyllitic and argillaceous. Interbedded with the shale are thin interbeds of micritic carbonaceous limestones with algal stromatolites from a few inches to 20 feet in thickness (Gardner, 1968).

At the type section and in surrounding areas, Bushnell (1967) estimated a thickness of about 10,000 feet, which is highly speculative as a result of the severe deformation within the unit. The unnamed unit in the Snake Mountains is poorly exposed and at least 500 feet thick (Gardner, 1968).

The Tennessee Mountain Formation is exposed in the Rowland and Mountain City Quadrangles in northern Elko County and may correlate with unnamed units in the northern Snake Mountains.

The depositional setting for the Tennessee Mountain Formation is very poorly understood. The presence of algal stromatolites in possible Tennessee Mountain rocks suggests relatively shallow marine shelf conditions.