It preserves fossils dating back to the Serravallian to earliest Pliocene stages (Clarendonian, Hemphillian and earliest Blancan in the NALMA classification) of the Neogene period,[2] including the gomphothere Blancotherium among many other fossil mammals, reptiles, birds and fish.

The formation hosts uranium deposits and forms the Evangeline aquifer underneath the city of Houston.

[4] The Goliad Formation comprises claystone, sand, sandstone, marl, caliche, limestone, and conglomerates and reaches in certain areas a thickness of 180 metres (590 ft).

[7] The Goliad Formation is recognized regionally across the Texas coastal plain as an interval of dominantly fluvial siliciclastic strata that overlies the Miocene Fleming Formation and underlies Pleistocene terrace deposits.

The formation is now interpreted as a basinward-thickening progradational wedge of Middle and Late Miocene age.