[1][2] The interval was first defined by the geologist Lardner Vanuxem, who derived the name from the village of Clinton in Oneida County, New York where several well exposed outcrops of these strata can be found.

[6] Many parts of this succession are richly fossiliferous, making the Clinton Group an important record of marine life during the early Silurian.

[1][5] It is overlain by the shales and carbonates of the Lockport Group in New York, the McKenzie Formation in Pennsylvania, and the Sneedville Limestone in Tennessee.

[1][5] Owing to the great difference in resistivity between the relatively soft, readily weathering Clinton Group and the massive dolomites of the overlying Lockport, the former tends to erode preferentially out from underneath the latter.

[8] The Clinton Group (or Formation) is a widely traceable, lower Silurian lithostratigraphic unit composed primarily of shale and mudstone, though it encompasses a heterogeneous assemblage of sedimentary rock types, including conglomerate, sandstone, limestone, dolomite, and ironstone.