Petuch and Roberts | Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch

Lake Okeechobee Region, What’s Under It?

My grandfather, J.R. Henderson, was a well-known soil-scientist back in the 1930s for the University of Florida.

I remember him telling me things about cows, plants, and the lands under them when we were driving on the “Sunshine State Parkway,” from Gainesville to Stuart. I think of my grandfather more these days and believe the study of geology and soils are in my blood although I know almost nothing about them.

My mother’s dad, my grandfather, J.R. Henderson, author of Soils of Florida, 1939:(https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/file/isric/fulltext/isricu_i16740_001.pdf)

So to educate ourselves and the those young people of the future we continue our study of the Boyer Survey of Lake Okeechobee, by Christopher Davenport and others–and today we will look at the section entitled Region Geology.

The authors mention a book by Petuch and Roberts (http://wzanews.com/IMG2/book/general%20geology/everglad%20geology.pdf) and note two formations: The Lake Flirt below and Pamlico above.

So South Florida in a nutshell….

The Lake Flirt Formation is noted to consist of three thin limestone layers the uppermost being caprock. This is often used by landscape companies to beautify our yards. I don’t understand how it is mined without jeopardizing the aquifer, but that’s another blog…

On top of the capstone and limestone layers are sands from the Pamlico Formation. These sands were blown across the state from east to west forming dunes over thousands of years. There is also clay that “resulted from deposit under Holocene ponds and marshlands.”

Source: Florida’s Fossils: Guide to Location, Identification, and Enjoyment
By Robin C. Brown

That’s just a quick review. But might get you interested again.

It is extremely humbling to refresh one’s memory on all this stuff we learned in grade school, as we are living in “the top layer” of millenniums. We in time, will just be another layer of an ancient coral formation we live upon, Florida. Nonetheless, it is important to know what is around us, above us, and under us. 🙂