Neogene Sand-to-Pebble Size Siliciclastic Sediments on the Florida Peninsula: Sedimentary Evidence in Support of the Genesis Flood

The uplift and erosion of the southern Appalachian Mountains provided geologic materials that were transported southward across the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. For a period of time the Suwannee Strait/Gulf Trough separated clastic sedimentation on the coastal plain from carbonate deposition out on the Florida Peninsula. Once the terrigenous sediments bridged this impediment, they rapidly spread southward across northern Florida. Subsequent regional tilting and widespread erosion along the Florida peninsula subjected these coarse siliciclastic sediments to further transport, eventually propelling them to the northern Florida Keys. In the Naturalist interpretation we would expect the particle size of the transported sediments to diminish southward across the peninsula due to both mechanical and chemical weathering over the purported millions of years. However, the identification of quartzite pebbles beneath the northern Florida Keys raises questions about this uniformitarian expectation. An alternative interpretation based on the consistent average quartz pebble particle size extending the length of the Florida Peninsula would suggest that the geologic energy necessary to erode, transport, and deposit the siliciclastic sediments from the southern Appalachians to the northern Florida Keys (approximately 650 miles) is better understood within the high energy framework of the global Flood of Genesis.