| Suwannee Limestone Stratigraphic range: Oligocene |
|
|---|---|
| Type | Geological formation |
| Underlies | Hawthorn Group-Arcadia Formation |
| Overlies | Ocala Limestone |
| Thickness | 160 feet |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Limestone |
| Location | |
| Named for | Suwanee River |
| Named by | C.W. Cooke and W.C. Mansfield |
| Region | North Florida |
| Country | United States |
| Extent | Leon to Hamilton to Taylor counties |
The Suwanee Limestone is an Early Oligocene geologic formation of exposed limestones in North Florida, United States.
Contents |
Period: Paleogene
Epoch: Early Oligocene
Faunal stage: Rupelian ~33.9 to ~23 mya, calculates to a period of approximately 16.9 million years
Suwannee Limestone is found in the peninsula carbonate outcroppings on the northwestern, northeastern and southwestern flanks of the Ocala Platform. However, Suwannee Limestone is not present on an area known as Orange Island on the eastern side of the Ocala Platform due to erosion, nondeposition or both.[1] This limestone is present in southeastern Leon, Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Lafayette counties as well as Hamilton along the upper Suwannee River basin, and southward into Suwannee County, Florida.
Early Oligocene Suwanee Limestone was recognized in the northwestern peninsula by P. F. Huddleston in 1993 as a triple subdivision of Suwanee Limestone, Ellaville Limestone, and Suwannacoochee Dolostone.[2]
Suwanee Limestone consists of a white to cream, poorly to well hardened, fossil rich, vuggy to moldic grainstone and packstone. The dolomitized parts of the Suwannee Limestone are gray, tan, light brown to moderate brown, moderately to well indurated (hard), finely to coarsely crystalline, dolostone with limited occurrences of fossil bearing beds. Limestone in silicate form is common in Suwannee Limestone.[3][4]
The Suwanee Limestone overlies the Ocala Limestone and forms part of the intermediate confining unit/aquifer system. (USGS)