Any subgroup of elements within an industry or main culture tradition that is distinguished from the whole on the basis of some aspect of appearance or composition. A major division of a cultural sequence, such as the Mousterian culture of the European Palaeolithic, is often described as having different facies - for example, the Quina Mousterian or the Mousterian of Acheulian tradition - though these may reflect different industries or cultures. It is also a geological term used to describe the characters of any part of a formation which is differentiated by its appearance or composition, especially by the fossils it contains, its constituent rocks, or its texture. The term has also been applied to pedology (soil).