ABSTRACT
The major transgression, at the beginning of the Calabrian Age, flooded the Everglades basin with a new marine system, the Loxahatchee subsea Throughout Calabrian time, the narrow Loxahatchee trough remained the only deep water area within the shrinking pseudoatoll. These survivors, mixed together with newly evolved organisms, gave the marine communities of the Loxahatchee Subsea a strange and unique appearance. The multiple lithofacies seen within the Holey Land Member of the Bermont formation reflect the complex oceanographic conditions of the Loxahatchee subsea and the surrounding Atlantic ocean and Gulf of Mexico during the Calabrian Age. The fossiliferous limestones are most commonly light gray to cream-gray in color, with white molluscan bioclasts (such as at the Holey Land stratotype), but can range in color from dark gray to grayish-brown (such as at the Palm Beach Aggregates quarries). The organic-rich, fine-particulate limy sandstones are generally dark brown, but can vary from brownish gray to black.
