ABSTRACT
The middle and late Pliocene (early and late Piacenzian Age) saw the return of extended periods of warm, tropical climates and biogenic carbonate deposition on the Florida Platform. By the early Piacenzian, permanent upwelling systems had ceased off western Florida, and the Okeechobean Sea no longer received massive influxes of plankton blooms and nutrients. This oceanographic shift permanently altered the Okeechobean depositional environments. The corresponding change in water chemistry resulted in the cessation of phosphatic sedimentation and the initiation of pure carbonate and carbonate-quartz sand deposition. With the loss of upwelling-influenced water conditions in the early Piacenzian, the Upwelling-Deltaic Depositional Episode came to an end and the Pseudoatoll Depositional Episode was ushered in. This marks the beginning of the Okeechobee Group.
