History Of Florida's Caves

[debajo agua]

Greetings,

I live in Florida and I have a coworker who's and old school cave diver. He told me that in all the caves he's been into, he's never seen any signs (I'm assuming he meant Columns, Stalagmites and Stalactites) to indicate these caves were ever dry. Since Geologist claim that, FL has multiple periods of the ocean receding miles from the present shore line, it struck me as odd i.e. if the ocean receded that far, there should be signs in today's underwater caves. No?

TIA

 

[sskasser]

You may get a better response by posting this in the Cave Diving section here, or on cavediver.net.

The short answer is that the majority of caves here were carved out by water (carbonic acid) and have never been dry. There are some with the particular formations you mention (see Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna). The geology (and amount of time submerged) of north Florida is a bit different than the rest of the peninsula. Check this link out as well (I have no connection here, just found it to be an interesting link): http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/student/barr1/report.htm

 

[Bev Stayart]

Thanks for this great link about Florida which explains the geological history of the different regions.

 

[sskasser]

Thanks for this great link about Florida which explains the geological history of the different regions.

Glad to help. It's an amazing state with a huge amount of variation.

 

[Doppler]

Your co-worker is telling you the truth. None of the Florida caves from the panhandle down to the area around Wikki Wachee are decorated... These range in depth from a few feet (such as the caves in Chipola River), to Wakulla in the north to Eagle's Nest in the south which run deeper than 90 metres. Plenty of fossils, lots of evidence of plate movement, but no furniture.

If you are looking for decorated caves, you will have to travel to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula or a handful of islands in the Caribbean including the Bahamas.