CHAPTER H 

 GEOLOGY 



4.1 STRUCTURE AND GEOLOGIC 

 SETTING 



The Floridan Plateau (Figure 

 20), originally named by Vaughan 

 (1910), represents the great projec- 

 tion of the North American continent 

 that separates the Gulf of Mexico 

 from the Atlantic Ocean. It 



includes not only the state of Flor- 

 ida, but an equal area beneath water 

 less than 50 fathoms (91.4 m or 

 300 ft) deep. The plateau underlies 

 all of the Everglades, Florida Bay, 

 and the Florida Keys, as well as a 

 large area of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 In the gulf, the plateau's bottom 



slopes gently away from the west 

 coast of Florida, but it drops off 

 sharply just south of the Keys into 

 the Straits of Florida. The median 

 axis of the plateau passes through 

 Key West, Bradenton, Sarasota, Cedar 

 Key, and Madison, Florida (Cooke 

 1945). 



Table 9 is a reference chart 

 for the ensuing discussion of geo- 

 logic structure and stratigraphy. 

 More detailed tables correlating 

 specific rock formations and facies 

 in Florida with geologic periods may 

 be found in Cooke (1945) and Puri 

 and Vernon (1964). 



Figure 20. The Floridan Plateau (adapted from Perkins and Enos 1968), 



47 



