Wakulla Springs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wakulla Springs is located 14 miles (22 km) south of Tallahassee, Florida and 5 miles (8 km) east of Crawfordville in Wakulla County, Florida at the crossroads of State Road 61 and State Road 267. It is protected in the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park.
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[edit] Description
Wakulla cave is a branching flow-dominated cave that has developed in the Floridan Aquifer under the Woodville Karst Plain of north Florida.
It is classified as a First magnitude spring and is the longest and deepest underwater cave system in the world. Wakulla Springs is a major exposure point for the Floridan Aquifer. The spring forms the Wakulla River which flows several miles to the south where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
[edit] History and discovery
Scientific interest in the spring began in 1850, when Sarah Smith reported seeing the bones of an ancient mastodon on the bottom. Since that time, scientists have identified the remains of at least nine other extinct Ice Age mammals, deposited as far as 1,200 feet (356 m) back into a cave.
[edit] Prehistoric humans
Upper Paleolithic - Paleoindians lived at or near the spring over 12,000 years and were descendants of people who crossed into North America from eastern Asia during the Pleistocene epoch. Clovis spear points have been found at Wakulla Springs.
[edit] Prehistoric animal life
- Mastodon (Mammut americanum) found at Wakulla.
- Ice Age camel (Camelops herternus)
- Giant ground sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi)
- Saber-toothed Tiger (Smilodon) found at Wakulla.
- Columbian Mammoth (Mammutus columbi)
- Ancient Bison (Bison antiquus)
- Equus (Equus scotti) found near Wakulla.
- Short-faced bear (Arctodus simus)
- Miocene Dugong (Metaxytherium crataegense) found near Wakulla.
- American lion (Panthera leo atrox) found in Florida.
[edit] Animal life today
Found in and around Wakulla Springs are Common Moorhens, alligators, limpkin, purple gallinules, heron, egret, bald eagle, anhinga, osprey, black vultures and turkey vultures.
[edit] Hydrology
Wakulla cave is comprised of a dendritic network of conduits of which 5.4 miles (8,770 m) have been surveyed and mapped. The conduits are characterized as long tubes with diameter and depth being consistent, however, joining tubes can be divided by larger chambers of varying geometries. The largest conduit trends south from the spring/cave entrance for over 3.41 miles (5.5 km). Just over 1.9 miles (3.2 km) have been mapped. Five secondary conduits measure 2.6 miles (4.3 km) in combined length and intersect the larger conduit. Eleven smaller conduits measuring 3937 feet (1.2 km) in combined length connect to the secondary conduits. Most of the conduits have not been fully explored.
Flow rate of the spring is 200-300 million gallons of water a day. A record peak flow from the spring on April 11, 1973 was measured at 14,324 gallons (54,226 liters) per second - equal to 1.2 billion gallons (4.542,494) cubic meters) per day.
