THE INFLUENCE OF SEA-LEVEL CHANGE AND GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE ON CAVE DEVELOPMENT IN WEST-CENTRAL FLORIDA |
| |
| Authors: | Robert Brinkmann Philip Reeder |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Geography , University of South Florida , Tampa, Florida 33620–8100;2. Department of Geography—Geology , University of Nebraska at Omaha , Omaha, Nebraska 68182–0199 |
| |
| Abstract: | The formation of caves in a portion of Citrus County, Florida is controlled structurally by northwest-southeast-trending joints that formed in the Suwannee Limestone during the uplift of Ocala Arch in the Miocene Epoch. The caves developed in a zone where saline water from the Gulf of Mexico and fresh water from the Ocala Uplift mixed. Further uplift elevated the caves above the mixing zone. Following subsequent lowering of regional baselevel, erosion caused sections of cave passages to collapse and/or be filled with sediment. The caves are fossil segments of a formerly larger, interconnected cave system. |
| |
| Keywords: | soil stone line alluvium geomorphology Iowa |
|
|
