--> Abstract: Sediments of the Inner Central West FL Continental Shelf, by L. J. Doyle and G. R. Brooks; #90928 (1999).

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DOYLE, LARRY J.1 and GREGG R. BROOKS2
1University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL.
2Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL.

Abstract: Sediments of the Inner Central West FL Continental Shelf

Over 200 vibra-cores and 500 surface grab samples have been collected between Anclote Key and Venice on the Central West Florida Inner Continental Shelf as part of a five year coastal zone study of the area funded by the U.S. Geological Survey. Surface sediments are a veneer of patches of shell hash and fine to very fine quartz sand offshore grading to fine to very fine quartz sand with minor components of shell material that compose the beaches of the extant barrier island system and the surface sediments of the adjacent lagoons and Tampa Bay. Shell material is generally medium sand to gravel in size and is predominantly Pelecypod fragments. The limited amount of quartz offshore suggests that the inner shelf has not been a major provenance for the barrier island system and that the barrier islands formed at or very near their present location, perhaps an expression of an older terrace. No new quartz sand is being added to the system; only carbonate sediments are being added.

Study of the cores reveals that there were a variety of quiet water depositional environments that can't be traced over large distances. A very gently sloping surface flooded during the last transgression juxtaposed near shore marine, paludal, and perhaps even lacustrine environments over small areas. Some of the quiet water sediments are carbonate muds and silicilastic muds unlike any surficial sediments found in the system at present. Carbonate muds bear at least a superficial resemblance to those now forming in Florida Bay.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90928©1999 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas