The next 170 million years saw the gradual accumulation of "carbonate" deposits, chiefly limestone. Coral,
shellfish, and fish skeletons steadily piled up, creating a layer of limestone hundreds (in some places thousands) of
feet thick. Around 35-30 million years ago, there occurred a not-well-understood secondary uplifting of the
Appalachians (which had been originally formed many tens of millions of years prior to this), resulting in an
accelerated erosion of the mountains and deposition of "clastic" (sand and clay) sediments over the Florida
platform. When sea levels fell a few million years later, Florida finally emerged from the sea as part of the North
American mainland.
Being essentially a landform of relatively thin sand and clay sediments overlaying much thicker layer of limestone,
the geology of Florida is largely determined by the characteristics of this mineral. Being fairly porous, most of the
limestone bedrock of the state is saturated with water, which gradually dissolves the rock and forms cracks and
passages. Indeed, the bedrock of the state is literally honeycombed with underground rivers. Many of these form
interwoven systems known as aquifers, the best known of which is the Floridan Aquifer. Where the underground
rivers break the surface springs and sinkholes are found, and Florida has thousands of these. In fact, the eastern
panhandle down through the central peninsula has more springs than any other comparably sized region in the
world, with 27 first-magnitude springs (more than 100 cubic feet of water per second), one of which - Spring
Creek Springs - is the most powerful in the world, discharging 2,003 cubic feet of water per second. Many of the
larger springs are open to the public, providing numerous locations where one can view this aspect of Florida
geology.
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