. Cooperative Gulf of Mexico estuarine inventory and study, Florida / J. Kneeland McNulty, William N. Lindall, Jr., and James E. Sykes. Estuarine biology Sediments of the panhandle and peninsula dif- fer in origin and basic character partly because rivers of the panhandle drain areas in the Ap- palachian Mountains, the Piedmont Plateau, and the coastal plain whereas those of the peninsula drain only coastal plain areas. Panhandle sed- iments are mainly clastic; peninsular sediments are mainly nonclastic, predominantly carbonates and anhydrites. The Apalachicola Embayment and the Sout
. Cooperative Gulf of Mexico estuarine inventory and study, Florida / J. Kneeland McNulty, William N. Lindall, Jr., and James E. Sykes. Estuarine biology Sediments of the panhandle and peninsula dif- fer in origin and basic character partly because rivers of the panhandle drain areas in the Ap- palachian Mountains, the Piedmont Plateau, and the coastal plain whereas those of the peninsula drain only coastal plain areas. Panhandle sed- iments are mainly clastic; peninsular sediments are mainly nonclastic, predominantly carbonates and anhydrites. The Apalachicola Embayment and the South Florida Embayment are synclines (Fig. 28). Sea level has varied from +270 to —525 ft ( + 82 to —160 m) in relation to present sea level. Wave-cut terraces above sea level and relict spits and coral reefs below it have helped geologists to identify ten previous stands of the sea. The terraces were thought to be Pleistocene in age, correlating with glaciations of the past 300,000 years, but evidence exists of pre-Pleistocene or- igin of the terraces that are at elevations of 100 ft (30 m) and above (Schnable and Goodell, 1968). The earth is currently in an interglacial stage in which the polar ice caps are melting, a process that began most recently about 14,000 years ago when sea level may have been 525 ft (160 m) below the present level (Ballard and Uchupi, 1970). Over the past 4,000 years the rise totaled only 10 ft (3 m), an average flooding of 5 inches (13 cm) per 100 years (Scholl, 1964). The flooding produced Florida Bay, which is a drowned lacustrine plain, and the coastal estu- aries such as Tampa Bay, which are drowned river valleys (MacNeil, 1950; Price, 1954). Florida's topography consists of lowlands and highlands of which the coastal lowlands are most relevant to this discussion. The Terraced Coast- al Lowlands with marine terraces at 5, 25,42 and 70 ft (2, 8, 13 and 21 m) terminate at the 70-ft (21-m) contour. The highlands, maximum ele- vation 345 ft (105 m)
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