quartzose sediment or shell debris. Deposits underlying the floor of the mangrove 
forest, or associated salt-grass marshes, range from peaty and calcareous quartzose 
sand and silt to compact, fibrous autochthonous peat. These organic rich units also 
attest to approximately 4 m of marine submergence during the last 4000 yrs. 
Concomitant with this submergence a rather complicated sequence of peaty and 
calcareous sediments accumulated along the western margin of the Everglades. If 
lithified, the modern shelf and coastal deposits of the northeastern corner of the Gulf of 
Mexico would be mapped as a somewhat discontinuous and slightly time-transgressive 
stratigraphic sequence consisting of a variety of shallow-water facies composed of 
mixtures of three lithologic end members: (1) calcarenite and calcilutite, (2) quartzose 
sandstone and siltstone, and (3) coal. These facies, and their stratigraphic 
relationships, duplicate some of the essential aspects of Paleozoic cyclotherms. 
1967 0 
Scholl, D. W., and M. Stuiver (1967) Recent submergence of southern Florida: A 
comparison with adjacent coasts and other eustatic data. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. . 78:437- 
54. 
[DATE OF SAMPLING UNKNOWN OR NOT APPLICABLE.] Submergence data gathered in 
southern Florida indicate that approximately 4400 yrs ago (in terms of radiocarbon 
years) sea level was about 4 m lower than today's level. Between 4400 and 3500 BP, 
sea level rose at a rate close to 30 cm 100 yr' 1 (1.0 ft century' 1 ). About 3500 BP, 
when sea level stood below its contemporary position, the rate of rise diminished by a 
factor of five; since 1700 BP, the rate of rise has averaged only about 3 cm 100 yr' 1 
(0.1 ft century 1 ). Because a consirable body of evidence points to the probable tectonic 
stability of southern Florida in Recent time, the recorded submergence us regarded as a 
measure of an eustatic change in sea level. The Florida submergence curve shows that 
sea level has risen more or less steadily to its present level during the last 4400 yrs. 
This differs significantly from the hypothesis that sea level rose 2 - 4 m above its 
present position during this time. The Florida submergence data also do not support a 
strict interpretation of the stable sea-level hypothesis, i.e., that sea level reached its 
present position (and maintained it) sometime between 3000 and 5000 yrs ago. This 
citation mainly discusses the Whitewater Bay region. [See Smith and Coleman (1967) 
and Scholl and Stuiver (1967) for comments and reply on this paper.] 
1967 0 
Smith, W. G., and J. M. Coleman (1967) Recent submergence of southern Florida: 
Discussion. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. . 78:1191-4. 
[DATE OF SAMPLING UNKNOWN OR NOT APPLICABLE.] Many of the dated samples 
reported by Scholl and Stuiver (1967) probably cannot be as closely related to past sea 
level as their small margins of error would suggest. More evidence of the true nature 
of the materials dated and the environments in which they accumulated must be 
provided. In the low-relief area of the Everglades and adjacent swamps, the materials 
used probably generally reflect the last phase of sea-level rise. More precise 
determinations seem necessary, however, before acceptance of the area as a standard 
of comparison for other coasts. 
1967 0 
Scholl, D. W., and M. Stuiver (1967) Recent submergence of southern Florida: reply. Geol. 
Soc. Am. Bull. . 78(9):1 195-8. 
[DATE OF SAMPLING UNKNOWN OR NOT APPLICABLE.] This is a reply to the comments 
by Smith and Coleman (1967) of the authors' paper on submergence (Scholl and 
Stuiver, 1967). 
186 
