ABSTRACT
Looking at Florida today, it is hard to visualize how utterly different the state appeared just 40 million years ago during the late Eocene Epoch. At that time (Jackson Stage), what would become Florida was a small, shallow carbonate bank over 150 km off the coast of Georgia (Figure 2.1). Resembling the Recent Bahamas, this shallow area, the
Ocala Bank
(named for the Ocala Group of formations), was separated from the U.S. mainland by a wide, shallow seaway, the
Suwannee Strait
(named for the Suwannee Limestone). On the Ocala Bank and on the shallow areas of the surrounding Florida Platform, biogenic carbonate sediments rapidly accumulated, forming thick layers. As the bank grew over the time span of the Eocene Epoch, six formations were deposited: the oldest, the Oldsmar Formation (Wilcox Stage); the middle (Claiborne Stage) Lake City and Avon Park Formations; and the youngest (Jackson Stage), the Ocala Group, with its Inglis, Williston, and Crystal River Formations.
