Floridan Aquifer

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The Floridan aquifer underlies portions of five states. Source: USGS

The Floridan Aquifer is an artesian aquifer composed of Carbonate-rock and located beneath the coastal regions of the Southeastern United States.

1 History
2 Location
3 Hydrology
4 See also
5 External links
6 Sources

[edit] History

In 1936, geologist Victor Timothy Stringfield first identified the existence of Floridan Aquifer in peninsular Florida and referred to the carbonate units as the "principal artesian formations." In 1944, M. A. Warren of the Georgia Geological Survey described an extension of this system in south Georgia and applied the term "principal artesian aquifer" to the carbonate units involved. In 1953 and 1966 Stringfield also applied the term "principal artesian aquifer" to these rocks. In 1955, Garald G. Parker noted the hydrologic and lithologic similarities of the Tertiary carbonate formations in southeast Florida, concluded that they represented a single hydrologic unit, and named that unit the "Floridan aquifer."

[edit] Location

The Floridan aquifer, as opposed to surficial aquifers, is the portion of the principal artesian aquifer that extends into Florida, parts of southern Alabama, southeastern Georgia, and southern South Carolina. In Florida it supplies the cities of Daytona, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Ocala, St. Petersburg, and Tallahassee and numerous rural communities.

[edit] Hydrology

The principal artesian aquifer is the largest, oldest, and deepest aquifer in the southeastern U.S. Ranging over 100,000 square miles, it underlies all of Florida and The Floridan portion developed millions of years ago during the late Paleocene to early Miocene periods, when Florida was underwater.

Wakulla Springs in Wakulla County, Florida is the major outflow of the Floridan.

Groundwater in the Floridan aquifer is contained under pressure by a confining bed of impermeable sediments. When the water pressure is great enough, the groundwater breaks to the surface and a spring flows. Water temperature and flow from a Floridan spring is relatively constant.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

USGS Aquifer study

[edit] Sources

U.S. Geologic Survey

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