Structurally, the area under 

 consideration in this report lies 

 within what Pressler (1947) refers 

 to as the Florida peninsula sedimen- 

 tary province. The peninsula sedi- 

 mentary province is characterized by 

 nonclastic (chemically or biologi- 

 cally produced as opposed to erosion 

 produced) sediments, primarily car- 

 bonates and anhydrites. Of parti- 

 cular significance to the present 

 study area are two structural fea- 

 tures of the peninsula. The first 

 is the south Florida embayment of 

 the Gulf of Mexico, whose center of 

 deposition passes through Florida 

 8ay and the Keys, paralleling the 

 lower southwest coast (Puri and 

 Vernon 1964). The second is the 

 south Florida shelf, a term applied 

 by Applin and Applin (1964) to a 

 shallow shelf generally paralleling 

 and leeward of the south Florida 

 embayment. 



Pressler (1947) believes that 

 anticlinal folds are the most preva- 

 lent type of structures within the 

 south Florida embayment. Although 

 probably occurring as secondary 

 structural features, faults should 

 also be prevalent within this area. 

 Based on the configuration of the 

 surface of the submerged areas, 

 Pressler and others believe the 

 Florida peninsula is bounded on the 

 south and east by major fault zones. 

 These faults are probably due to 

 continental movements in addition to 

 settling, compacting, and continuous 

 downwarping of the sedimentary fill. 

 The latter factors are also likely 

 to contribute localized structural 

 features significant to the accumu- 

 lation of oil. 



According to Applin and Applin 

 (1964), the floor of the coastal 

 plain in the Florida peninsula is 

 the truncated surface of a variety 

 of igneous and sedimentary rocks 

 that are chiefly Precambrian and 

 early Paleozoic in age. Unfortu- 



nately, most of the work conducted 

 on underlying Pre-Mesozoic rocks in 

 Florida is restricted to north and 

 central portions of the peninsula. 

 One of the primary reasons for this 

 is the volume of sedimentary fill 

 overlying the coastal plain floor in 

 southern Florida. A number of in- 

 vestigators (Pressler 1947, Antoine 

 and Harding I963, Applin and Applin 

 1964) place the Pre-Mesozoic floor 

 at 3,658 to 6,096 m (12,000 to 

 20,000 ft) below mean sea level. 

 Figure 21 (from Puri and Vernon 

 1964), summarizes the stratigraphic 

 relationships of the Pre-Cenozoic 

 Florida peninsula. 



4.2 TERTIARY STRATIGRAPHY 



The oldest rock layer of the 

 Tertiary beneath the Everglades, 

 Taylor Slough, and Florida Keys is 

 the Avon Park Limestone, a cream 

 colored chalky limestone of marine 

 origin belonging to the Clairborne 

 group of the Eocene series (Cooke 

 1945). Above this, the Crystal 



River Formation thins from east to 

 west beneath Taylor Slough headwa- 

 ters, and remains thinly represented 

 farther south. Suwannee Limestone 

 (Cooke and Mansfield 1936), of late 

 Oligocene age, and the Hawthorn 

 facies, of the Alum Bluff stage of 

 the Miocene series, overlie these 

 older strata. Pliocene rocks under- 

 lying the Everglades, Florida Bay, 

 and the Florida Keys are represented 

 by the contemporaneous Caloosahat- 

 chee and Tamiami Formations (Parker 

 and Cooke 1944). To the north, to- 

 ward the Big Cypress, the dissected 

 Tamiami Formation is thinly covered 

 by Pleistocene sands and occasional- 

 ly even outcrops at the surface. 



1.3 PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENTS 



The cessation of the deforma- 

 tion that warped the Citronelle For- 

 mation to the north of the present 

 study area is a convenient beginning 



49 



