The (Upper) Late Pennsylvanian Manakacha Formation is a cliff-forming, sandstone, red-orange geologic unit, formed from an addition of eolian sand,[1]: 40  added to marine transgression deposits, (siltstones, etc.

It is one of the lower members of the Supai Group (member two of four major units), with the Supai Group found in other sections of Arizona, especially in the Verde Valley region, or as a basement unit below the Mogollon Rim, just eastwards or part of the basement Supai Group of the southwest & south Colorado Plateau.

The subsections are sometimes separated by unconformities, due to changing ocean levels, glaciation, or regional subsidence.

[1]: xviii Because marine transgressions cover distances, over time, the coeval units are separated by distance, and type of deposition material; the local subsidence, or uplift, as well as glaciation, and sea level changes, can cause variations in the deposition sequences of transgression-regressions.

The ocean was to the west of the proto-North American continent, but also northwest, or southwest.