ABSTRACT
By the beginning of Rupelian time, the worldwide climate began to warm and sea levels rose almost to their late Eocene levels. A shallow sea, the Dade Subsea, now flooded the southern Florida platform and produced depositional environments that resulted in the sediments of the Suwannee formation (Everglades component). By the end of the Suwannee time (early Chattian Oligocene), the central depression began to fill with carbonate fines that were eroding off Orange Island and the surrounding reef systems. The depositional area of the Suwannee conforms to the paleogeography of the Dade Subsea. In the northern and western peninsular Florida, the formation follows the contours of the coral reef systems and carbonate lagoons of the Suwannee Strait and it’s the reef systems. These limestone’s often contain beautifully preserved siliceous pseudomorphs (agatized specimens) of an especially rich mollusk and coral fauna.
