Ocala Chert is mostly distributed as lag material ("float") across Henry and Houston Counties is southeastern Alabama. On the state geological map of Alabama, this area is mapped as "residuum." Few, if any, outcrops of rock are exposed anywhere in the region, but on the basis of age relationships, it is thought that rocks of the Jackson Group directly underlie the area. However, due to poor stratigraphic control in southeastern Alabama, the geological source of the Ocala Chert has not been positively identified.

The Jackson Group is Mid to Late Eocene in age and crops out in a belt across south Alabama. The Group consists of a number of formations. In southeastern Alabama, the Jackson Group consists of the Moody's Branch Formation and the Yazoo Clay. The Yazoo Clay is further divided into the Williston Formation, and the Crystal River Formation. Limestone units comparable in age to the Ocala Limestone (Middle-Upper Eocene) also occur within the Jackson Group in the subsurface, but most are unnamed. Strictly speaking, Ocala Limestone is a Florida stratigraphic unit. It is distributed across Florida and parts of Georgia, but is seldom exposed at the surface (at least in Florida or Alabama). There is one exception in Alabama. A thin sliver of Ocala-equivalent limestone occurs on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee River in Henry County.

The Jackson Group is preceded stratigraphically by the Claiborne Group (Gosport Formation, Lisbon Formation and Tallahatta Formation). The Jackson Group is overlain by the Oligocene-aged Vicksburg Group (Bumpnose Limestone, Red Bluff Clay, Marianna Limestone, Florala Limestone, Byram Marl, and Bucatunna Formation).