Geology of Gadsden County, Florida

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STATE OF FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Tom Gardner, Executive Director

DIVISION OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Jeremy A. Craft, Director

FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Walter Schmidt, State Geologist and Chief

BULLETIN NO. 62

GEOLOGY OF GADSDEN COUNTY, FLORIDA
BY
Frank R. Rupert

Published for the

FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Tallahassee
1990

AJ1IVASITY OF FLROMA LI ilkI

DEPARTMENT
OF
NATURAL RESOURCES

BOB MARTINEZ
Governor

JIM SMITH
Secretary of State

TOM GALLAGHER
State Treasurer

BOB BUTTERWORTH
Attorney General

GERALD LEWIS
State Comptroller

BETTY CASTOR
Commissioner of Education

DOYLE CONNER
Commissioner of Agriculture

TOM GARDNER
Executive Director

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Florida Geological Survey
June 1990

Governor Bob Martinez, Chairman
Florida Department of Natural Resources
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Dear Governor Martinez:

The Florida Geological Survey, Division of Resource Management, Department of Natural Resources, is
publishing as its Bulletin No. 62, Geology of Gadsden County, Florida, prepared by Frank R. Rupert, P.G. No.
149. This report fulfills a need for information on the stratigraphy of Gadsden County, which is fundamental
to ground-water resource investigations and land use planning. Information on mineral resources is also
presented, along with data helpful to other agencies, planners, and the citizens of Florida.

Respectfully yours,

Walter Schmidt, Ph.D.
State Geologist and Chief
Florida Geological Survey

OF LORIM 4RA

Printed for the
Florida Geological Survey

Tallahassee
1990

ISSN 0271-7832

iv

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................

INTRODUCTION ............................................
Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Location and Extent ........................................
Location and Extenti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous Investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maps .......... ........................................
Well and Locality Numbering System ...............................
Metric Conversion Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

GEOLOGY ......................
Geomorphology ..................
Northern Highlands ..............
Tallahassee Hills ..............
Gulf Coastal Lowlands .............
Apalachicola Coastal Lowlands ......
Marine Terraces ...............
Springs . . . . . . . .. . . .
Chattahoochee Spring ..........
Glen Julia Springs .............
Indian Springs ...............
Stratigraphy ...................
Paleozoic Erathem ...............
Mesozoic Erathem ...............
Lower Cretaceous .............
Upper Cretaceous . . . . . . .
Atkinson Formation ..........
Unnamed Upper Cretaceous Beds ..
Cenozoic Erathem ...............
Tertiary System ...............
Paleocene and Eocene Series . . .
Upper Paleocene and Lower Eocene
Wilcox Group Undifferentiated . .
Middle Eocene . . . . . .
Avon Park Formation ......
Upper Eocene ...... .....
Ocala Group ..........
Oligocene Series . . . . . .
Lower Oligocene ...... ..
Suwannee Limestone ......
Miocene Series . . . . . . .
Lower Miocene ............
St. Marks Formation and
Chattahoochee Formation . .
Hawthorn Group
Torreya Formation ........
Pliocene Series . . . . . . .
Upper Pliocene . . . . . .
Jackson Bluff Formation .....
Citronelle Formation ......
Miccosukee Formation . . .
Pleistocene and Holocene Series . ..
Structure ........ ..............
Peninsular Arch .................

Page
viii

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. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .o . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
.......................

Apalachicola Embayment
Chattahoochee Anticline
Gulf Trough . . . .
Ocala Platform . . .
Geologic Hazards . . .
Flooding ..........
The Pitt landslide . .
Sinkholes . . . .
Ground water . . . .
Surficial aquifer system .
Intermediate confining unit
Floridan aquifer system ..
Potentiometric surface .
Mineral Resources . . .
Clay ... ...... .. .
Fuller's earth . . . .
Limestone and Dolomite .
Sand and Gravel . .
Phosphate . . . .
Petroleum . . . .

REFERENCES ........

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure
1 Gadsden County location map .................................

2 Index to U.S. Geological Survey 7 1/2 minute topographic quadrangle map coverage of
Gadsden County ........................................

3 Well and locality numbering system ...............................

4 Geomorphic map of Gadsden County .............................

5 Marine terrace elevation zones of Gadsden County . . . . . . . . . . .

6 East-West diagrammatic stratigraphic section in Gadsden County . . . . . . .

7 Mesozoic geologic cross-section ...............................

8 Geologic cross-section location map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page
2

3

5

8

10

13

14

15

9 Geologic cross-section A-A' ................................... 16

10 Geologic cross-section B-B' .................. ............. 16

11 Geologic cross-section C-C' .................................. 17

12 Geologic cross-section D-D' .................. ............... 17

13 Geologic cross-section E-E' .................. ............... 18

14 Structure contour map of the top of the Suwannee Limestone in Gadsden County

. . . 21

15 Columnar section of the type locality of the Chattahoochee Formation, east
Jim Woodruff Dam, Decatur County, Georgia . . . . . . . .... ....... 23

16 Photograph showing the Chattahoochee Formation exposed along the east
Jim Woodruff Dam access road ............................... 24

17 Structure contour map of the top of the Lower Miocene carbonates
in Gadsden County ....................................... 25

18 Fossil Miocene Cypress tree unearthed at the Engelhard Company Midway mine . . 28

19 Miocene dugong Hesperosiren cratagensis found in Hawthorn Group
sediments in the Floridin Company Quincy mine in 1929 . . . . . . . . ... 30

20 Structure contour map of the top of the Hawthorn Group Torreya Formation
In Gadsden County ....................................... 31

21 Photograph of Citronelle Formation sediments exposed in the Gadsden County
Road Department Walker pit .................................. 33

22 Photograph of Miccosukee Formation sediments exposed in a road cut
along U.S.90, east of Quincy ................... ............... 35

23 Principal subsurface structures of north Florida . . . . . . ... ...... 36

24 Mainstreet River Junction after the flood of April 2, 1948 . . . . . . . ..... 39

25 The Pitt landslide, April 1948 ................... ............... 40

26 Potentiometric surface map of the Floridan aquifer system in Gadsden County ....... 43

27 Photograph of the Ochlocknee Brick Company Plant at Lawrence, circa 1924 ....... 46

28 Stratigraphic section at the Engelhard Swisher Mine north of Quincy . . . . ... 49

29 Hawthorn Group fuller's earth sediments exposed at the Engelhard Swisher Mine . . 50

30 Dragline mining at the Engelhard Swisher Mine, Gadsden County . . . . . .... 51

TABLES

Page
1. Wells referenced in text and cross sections . . . . . . . ..... . . . . .. 6

2. Mineral producers by commodity in Gadsden County . . . . . . . .... . 44

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge a number of individuals for their assistance in the preparation and review
of this report. The staff of the Florida Geological Survey were especially helpful with their comments and
suggestions on the content and format. Special thanks are extended to Paulette Bond, Dr. Ron Hoenstine,
Richard Johnson, Ed Lane, Alison Lewis, Jackie Uoyd, Dr. Walt Schmidt, Dr. Tom Scott, Steve Spencer and
Bill Yon for critical review of the manuscript. The author greatly appreciates the assistance of Cindy Collier
in typing the preliminary drafts of this report. Many thanks are also due to Jim Jones and Ted Kiper for their
helpful advice and expert preparation of photo-negatives of the illustrations in this study.

Bulletin No. 62

GEOLOGY OF GADSDEN COUNTY, FLORIDA
by
Frank R. Rupert, P.G. No. 149

INTRODUCTION
Purpose

Florida's projected rapid population growth
through the year 2000 dictates the need for an
understanding of the geological parameters affect-
ing Intelligent growth planning. Previous research
has provided a good geologic data base for much
of Florida, but published Information on many of the
state's less-populous counties is lacking. In an
attempt to synthesize existing geologic data into
publicly usable information, the Florida Geological
Survey is currently undertaking a series of geologi-
cal studies of Florida's less-populous counties.
The purpose of this report is to present a general
overview of the geology and mineral resources of
Gadsden County based on existing literature and
well data on file at the Florida Geological Survey.

LOCATION AND EXTENT

Gadsden County is situated in the Big Bend Area
of the Florida Panhandle (Figure 1). It is bounded
on the west by Jackson and Liberty Counties, on
the north by the State of Georgia, and on the east
and south by Leon County.

Gadsden County is irregular in shape, spanning
about 38 miles at its widest east-west dimension,
and 22 miles at its greatest north-south dimension.
The total land area is approximately 512 square
miles. Population in 1989 was 46,400 (Smith and
Bayya, 1989).

PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS

A number of authors have addressed the geol-
ogy and paleontology of Gadsden County. The
earliest studies included descriptions of the geol-
ogy and stratigraphy of the area by Langdon (1891),
Dall and Harris (1892), Dall (1892), and Dall and
Stanley-Brown(1894). Sellards (1910, 1914, 1916

and 1917) included brief descriptions of the history,
botany, geology, geomorphology, springs, and
mineral resources of Gadsden and nearby coun-
ties. Harper (1914), described the vegetation and
Sellards and Gunter (1918) discussed the geology
of the area between the Apalachicola and Ochlock-
onee Rivers. Matson and Clapp (1909), Cooke and
Mossom (1929), Cooke (1945) and Puri and Vemon
(1959, 1964), included the Big Bend Area in their
works on the geology of Florida. Bridge and Ber-
dan (1952) and Rainwater (1971) investigated the
petroleum prospects of the Big Bend area. An ex-
cellent series of articles by Applin and Applin (1944,
1947), Applin (1951) and Applin (1955) provided
useful data on panhandle stratigraphy and paleon-
tology. Cole (1944) reported on the microfauna in
one Gadsden County well, and Purl (1953), Puri and
Vernon (1956) and Banks and Hunter (1973)
studied Miocene stratigraphy and paleontology of
the Florida panhandle. Hendry and Yon (1958)
provided a synopsis of the geology around the Jim
Woodruff dam near Chattahoochee in Gadsden
County, and Gremillion (1964, 1966) related the
geology to the fuller's earth deposits of Gadsden
County. The economic clay deposits were
described in studies by Vaughn (1902, 1903), Sel-
lards (1908, 1909), Sellards and Gunter (1909), Bell
(1924), Calver (1949, 1957), McClellan (1964),
Ogden (1978) Patterson (1974) and Spencer et al.,
(1989, in press). Bridges and Davis (1972) dis-
cussed the hydrologic effects of the 1969 flood in
Gadsden County, and Pascale and Wagner (1982)
included a portion of Gadsden County in their
report on the hydrology of the Ochlockonee River
basin. MacNeil (1944), Vernon (1952) and Doering
(1960) included Gadsden and surrounding coun-
ties in their stratigraphic studies, and Schmidt
(1979) detailed the surficial geology of Gadsden
County in an environmental geology map. Yon
(1953) and most recently, Scott (1988) reviewed the
stratigraphy and extent of the Hawthorn Group
sediments in the Big Bend area. Johnson (1989a)
redescribed and illustrated the Chattahoochee For-
mation type section at Jim Woodruff Dam, north of

R6W R5W R

ON I -n
VANA -"
BIG BEND
.BjG AREA C'

LEGEND
0 TOWNS
S MAJOR HIGHWAYS
oO ,INTERSTATE HIGHWAY
@ U.S. HIGHWAY
@ STATE HIGHWAY
MAJOR SPRINGS
1. CHATTAHOOCHEE SPRING
2. GLEN JULIA SPRINGS
3. INDIAN SPRINGS

MILES
0 1 2 3 4 5

0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

Figure 1. Gadsden County location map.

Figure 2. Index to U.S. Geological Survey 7 1/2 minute topographic quadrangle map coverage of
Gadsden County.

Florida Geological Survey

Chattahoochee, and Johnson (1989b) provided a
gamma-log of the same section.

MAPS

Surface contour information and cross-section
profiles were obtained from the United States
Geological Survey 7.5 minute topographic quad-
rangle maps. Figure 2 illustrates the topographic
map coverage of Gadsden County. Base maps
were derived from the Florida Department of
Transportation General Highway map for Gadsden
County. The surface litholgy is covered by the
Florida Geological Survey Map Series No. 90
(Schmidt, 1979).

WELL AND LOCALITY NUMBERING SYSTEM

The well numbering system in this study is that
of the Florida Geological Survey well filing system.
Each well is identified with a "W", a dash, and a
one-to-five digit accession number unique to that
well.

Wells and locations within the county are plotted
according to the township, range, and section rec-
tangular system. The location coordinates as-
signed to each well consist of five parts: the
township number, the range number, the section
number, and two letters representing the
quarter/quarter location within the section. The
basic unit of this coordinate system is the township,
which is six miles square (Figure 3). Townships are
numbered consecutively in tiers both north and
south of the Florida Base Line, an east-west survey
line passing through Tallahassee. The township
rectangle is also numbered both east and west of
the Principal Meridian, a north-south survey line
also passing through Tallahassee. Each township
square is equally divided into 36 square-mile pieces
called sections. Sections are numbered 1 through
36 as shown on Figure 3. The sections are in turn
divided into four quarters labeled a through d, and
each quarter is further divided into quarters labeled

a through d in a similar fashion. Figure 3 provides
an example of a well located according to this
system. Table 1 is a list of the wells referred to in
this report, with their elevations, depths, and loca-
tions.

METRIC CONVERSION FACTORS

In order to prevent awkward duplication of
parenthetical conversion of units in the text of
reports, the Florida Geological Survey has adopted
the practice of inserting a tabular listing of conver-
sion factors. For readers who prefer metric units to
the customary U. S. units used in this report, the
following conversion factors are provided:

Il II TIDI V

acres
acres
cubic yards
feet
inches
inches
miles
sq. miles
cub. ft. per sec.
cub. ft. per sec.
short tons

Tn ARTAIM

0.4047
4047.0
0.7646
0.3048
2.540
0.0254
1.609
2.590
0.646
448.8
0.908

hectares
sq. meters
cu. meters
meters
centimeters
meters
kilometers
sq. km.
cu. m. sec.
gal. per min.
metric tons

GEOLOGY
GEOMORPHOLOGY

Gadsden County lies within the Northern Zone
of Purl and Vernon (1964). The Northern Zone is
characteristically a high broad upland including the
northermost Florida peninsula and all of the pan-
handle. Purl and Vernon (1964) recognize two
major subdivisions of the Northern Zone in the Big
Bend Area, the Northern Highlands and the Gulf
Coastal Lowlands. Figure 4 is a generalized
geomorphic map of Gadsden County.

AV" i 10 LJIV iV( Ill11

Bulletin No. 62

N BASE LINE

tR7W R6W R5W R4W R3W R2W R1W

R7W R6W R5W R4W R3W R2W R1W
....~-- 7 . . . .

W-7472 T2N-R3W-SEC. 19ad

5

4

2

I-
C 7 8 9 10 11 12
O
Z
CN 18 17 16 15 14 13

U 19 20 21 22 23 24
z _
O 30 29 28 27 26 25
1- __
31 32 33 34 35 36

RANGE 3 WEST

Figure 3. Well and locality numbering system.

SECTION 19

1.

1

Florida Geological Survey

Table 1. Wells referenced in text and cross-sections

Land surface Total depth
Location elevation (feet below
County Well Number (TRS 1/4-1/4 (feet MSL) land surface)

Gadsden W-4 2N 3W 6ac 149.75 898
W-329 3N 6W 4ab 116.0 200
W-545 2N2W11a 268.0 368
W-861 3N 2W 27ba 240.5 425
W-1467 3N 1W 30cc 235.0 4010
W-1478 4N 6W 32cc 40.2 121
W-1768 2N 3W 35ba 200.0 4240
W-1786 2N 5W 7aa 284.0 4222
W-2482 3N 6W 15ab 288.0 216
W-3078 2N 4W 6dd 277.0 360
W-3482 3N 6W 4ab 146.53 239
W-3577 2N 6W 19ba 245.0 4022
W-4915 3N 4W 10bc 293.0 280
W-4925 2N 4W 23ba 216.6 4185
W-5201 2N 4W 5ab 288.17 467
W-6217 2N 3W 29ac 201.0 7028
W-7458 2N 5W 30ac 255.0 462
W-7472 2N 3W 19ad 255.0 472
W-7528 2N 2W 9dd 215.0 442
W-7537 1N 3W 23dd 110.0 154
W-7539 2N 4W 32aa 265.0 475
W-15468 3N 2W llac 210.0 447
W-15795 1N 2W 6bb 200.0 402

Jackson W-1777 4N 7W 36cb 87.4 75
W-1886 5N 11W 8ab 128.0 9243

Leon W-6599 1S4W 21aa 61.0 400
W-6902 1N1W3a 80.0 158
W-7180 2N 1W lad 279.0 302
W-7536 1S 3W lad 148.0 215

Liberty W-6611 2N 7W 23db 259.0 295
W-7535 1S 6W 13dd 110.0 62

Wakulla W-12114 2S 3W 27da 85.0 11100

Bulletin No. 62

Northern Highlands

The Northem Highlands geomorphic subzone is
a portion of a nearly continuous series of
topographically high uplands stretching from
westem Duval County, Florida, westward to the
Florida-Alabama state line. These highlands are
thought to be dissected remnants of a once much
larger and continuous highlands area that stretched
from southern Georgia southward into the Florida
panhandle (Puri and Vernon, 1964). Stream valleys
partition the Northem Highlands into a series of
local geomorphic subzones. The Tallahassee Hills
is the geomorphic subzone of the Northern High-
lands comprising most of Gadsden County.

Tallahassee Hills

Tallahassee Hills was the name proposed by
Cooke (1939) for the series of topographic hills in
Florida delineated by the Georgia state line on the
north, the coastal terraces to the south, the With-
lacoochee River on the east, and the Apalachicola
River on the west. In Gadsden County, the Tal-
lahassee Hills extend southward from the Georgia
state line to the edge of the Gulf Coastal Lowlands
geomorphic zone. The Tallahassee Hills comprise
nearly all of Gadsden County, with the exception of
the southernmost tip of the county south of Ock-
lawaha Creek.
The sediments comprising the Tallahassee Hills
may be deltaic or shallow marine in origin, with the
hill tops composed largely of resistant clayey
sands, silts, and clays. The modern hilly topog-
raphy is the result of post-depositional dissection
and erosion by running water. Elevations vary
from approximately 100 feet above mean sea level
(MSL) in the southern portion of Gadsden County
to nearly 330 feet MSL near the Florida-Georgia
State line.
Numerous streams dissect the hills in a dendritic
patten, and commonly form deeply-incised valleys
and ravines. Telogia Creek, which originates
northwest of Quincy, is a major creek flowing south-
westward out of Gadsden County in a well-defined
valley; it ultimately flows into the Ochlockonee River

to the south in Liberty County.
The Apalachicola River forms the westernmost
boundary of the Tallahassee Hills geomorphic zone
as well as being the western county boundary be-
tween Gadsden and Jackson Counties. Here, the
Tallahassee Hills end rather abruptly at the edge of
a flat, half-mile-wide floodplain on the east bank of
the Apalachicola River. The steep bluffs formed at
the edge of the Apalachicola River commonly stand
between 150 to 200 feet above the floodplain and
expose Miocene to Holocene age strata. Excellent
examples are Jones Bluff and the east Jim Woodruff
Dam bluff north of Chattahoochee. At these loca-
tions, over 100 feet of Lower Miocene to Holocene
age sediments may be observed in the bluff face
overlooking the river.
The dry sandy uplands eastward of the bluffs
typically contain a flora of long leaf pine, scrub oak,
and low woody shrubs. Interestingly, the bluffs
appear to support a different and unique
microclime, with numerous magnolia, beech, white
oak, holly, and sugar maple trees (Clewell, 1971).
The Ochlockonee River, flowing southwestward
out of Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico, forms the
eastem boundary of Gadsden County. Between
the Georgia state line and the southem tip of
Gadsden County, the river gradient averages 1.5
feet per mile (Hendry and Sproul, 1966). A
hydroelectric dam, situated on the river a few
hundred yards north of State Road 20, forms Lake
Talquin at the southeastern edge of Gadsden Coun-
ty.
Numerous dendritic creeks drain into Lake
Talquin south of Quincy. Lake Talquin occupies
most of the floodplain of the Ochlockonee River in
this portion of the county.
North of the lake, a discernible alluvial terrace,
trending parallel to the river at approximately the
100 feet MSL contour, defines a low, semi-swampy
area containing fluvial sediments. This zone bor-
dering the Ochlockonee River was named the
Ochlockonee River Valley Lowlands by Hendry and
Sproul (1966). In Gadsden County, this geomor-
phic subzone averages about two miles wide as it
stretches from the northeastern tip of Lake Talquin
to the U. S. Highway 27 bridge. North of Highway

GEORGIA
- - - - - -- --

Li1

EXPLANATION

. 0
'-
*--o

1o-

MILES
0 1 2 3 45

0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

NORTHERN ZONE
NORTHERN HIGHLANDS
j TALLAHASSEE HILLS
1 OCHLOCKONEE RIVER
VALLEY LOWLANDS
Fr APALACHICOLA RIVER
J VALLEY LOWLANDS
GULF COASTAL LOWLANDS
E APALACHICOLA COASTAL
LOWLANDS

Figure 4. Geomorphic map of Gadsden County.

Bulletin No. 62

27, the Ochlockonee River Valley Lowlands be-
come less than a mile wide as the river valley
becomes more deeply incised in the Tallahassee
Hills (Figure 4).
The Little River forms at the confluence of Wel-
lacoochee Creek and Attapulgus Creek in north-
eastern Gadsden County. This small river flows
southward in a narrow valley roughly defined by the
100 feet MSL elevation line, and empties into an arm
of Lake Talquin. Fluvial erosion by the Little River
and its numerous tributaries has removed most of
the reddish siliciclastic sediments of the Tallahas-
see Hills in the immediate vicinity of the river. The
valley floors of the Little River and its larger
tributaries consist largely of a thin layer of Holocene
alluvium directly overlying sandy clay of the Haw-
thorn Group (Gremillion, 1964).
At the southern edge of the Tallahassee Hills, the
east-west trending Cody Scarp forms the boundary
between the Tallahassee Hills and the Gulf Coastal
Lowlands of Purl and Vernon (1964). The name
Cody Scarp was applied by Purl and Vernon (1959)
to a distinct relict marine escarpment traceable at
various elevations in the Florida Panhandle. In
Gadsden County, the Cody Scarp trends east-west
across the southern tip of the county, roughly
bounded by Bear Creek to the north (approximately
220 feet MSL crest elevation) and by Ocklawaha
Creek on the south (elevation approximately 200
feet MSL). The Gulf Coastal Lowlands geomorphic
zone lies south of the Cody escarpment (Puri and
Vernon, 1964).

Gulf Coastal Lowlands

The Gulf Coastal Lowlands geomorphic zone
contains the relatively flat-lying lowlands in the pan-
handle stretching from the Cody Scarp southward
to the Gulf of Mexico (Puri and Vernon, 1964).
Pleistocene sea level fluctuations imposed a series
of gently seaward-sloping marine terraces on the
Gulf Coastal Lowlands, and the present-day topog-
raphy of flat, sandy, frequently swampy terrain
reflects this marine origin. Flora consists largely of
long leaf pine, saw palmetto, wire grass, gall berry,

titi, and sweetbay (Clewell, 1971). Hendry and
Sproul (1966) proposed the name Apalachicola
Coastal Lowlands for the flat, sandy subzone of the
Gulf Coastal Lowlands underlain by thick siliciclas-
tic deposits in western Leon County. This terrain
type is traceable into southernmost Gadsden Coun-
ty, and therefore the terminology of Hendry and
Sproul (1966) is adopted in this report.

Apalachicola Coastal Lowlands

South of the toe of the Cody Scarp, ap-
proximated by Ocklawaha Creek, the topographic
relief begins to flatten somewhat, losing the steep,
deeply incised nature of the Tallahassee Hills to the
north. Elevations range from about 50 feet MSL in
the south near the Gadsden-Leon County line to
about 200 feet MSL at the toe of the Cody Scarp.
Thick sands and clayey sands underlie most of the
Apalachicola Coastal Lowlands in Gadsden Coun-
ty. At the southernmost tip of the county, near Lake
Talquin, unconsolidated surficial sands of fluvial
and marine terrace origin become predominant,
extending out of Gadsden County to the Gulf of
Mexico. The portion of the Apalachicola Coastal
Lowlands stretching southward from the toe of the
Cody Scarp to approximately the 100 foot contour
line has been called the Beacon Slope by earlier
workers (Puri and Vernon, 1964).

Marine Terraces

An integral part of the present-day geomorphol-
ogy of Gadsden County is a series of relict marine
terraces. These terraces are step-like surfaces of
erosion representing shorelines developed by ad-
vances and retreats of the sea during the Pleis-
tocene Epoch. Healy (1975) recognizes five marine
terraces based on elevation in Gadsden County. In
order of descending elevation (and age), these
shorelines are the Hazelhurst, the Coharie, the
Sunderland-Okefenokee, the Wicomico, and the
Penholoway Terraces. Figure 5 illustrates the ex-
tent of each terrace in Gadsden County.
Most of northern and western Gadsden County

~L - ----- -----

I

II

=1

L-

MILES
0 1 2 3 4 5
0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

MARINE TERRACE ELEVATION ZONES
(FEET ABOVE
MEAN SEALEVEL)
HAZELHURST 220-320
COHARIE 170-220
R SUNDERLAND/ 100-170
OKEFENOKEE
j WICOMICO 70-100
PENHOLOWAY 42-70

Figure 5. Marine terrace elevation zones of Gadsden County (modified from Healy, 1975).

Bulletin No. 62

is part of the Hazelhurst Terrace (Cooke, 1939),
which is the highest Pleistocene terrace recognized
in Florida (Healy, 1975). The Hazelhurst Terrace
includes the Brandywine Terrace of Clark (1915), as
well as the Coastwise delta plain of Vernon (1942)
and the high Pliocene delta of MacNeil (1950).
Lower limits of the Hazelhurst occur at ap-
proximately 220 feet MSL; the upper limits in
Gadsden County occur at the 320 feet MSL eleva-
tion. MacNeil (1950) stated that the Gadsden
County portion is a remnant of a once continuous
highlands stretching from Mississippi eastward
through Alabama, west Florida, and Georgia. The
modern Tallahassee Hills appear to be a stream
dissected remnant of this once flat terrace surface.
Fluvial erosion associated with the Ochlockonee
and Little Rivers has truncated the eastern edges of
the Hazelhurst and successively lower terraces in
Gadsden County (Figure 5).
The Coharie Terrace spans southern and eastern
Gadsden County in a three-mile-wide band
delineated by the 170 to 220 feet MSL contour lines.
The Cody Scarp, which may be associated with the
Coharie sea level stand, trends east-west across
southern Gadsden County between Bear and Ock-
lawaha Creeks. These creeks display an east-west
trending trellis drainage pattern, indicating that the
creeks along the toe and crest of the Cody Scarp
probably post-date terrace development (Gremil-
lion, 1964).
As used in this report, the Sunderland Terrace
includes the Sunderland Terrace of Cooke (1939)
and the Okefenokee terrace of MacNeil (1950). The
Sunderland Terrace lies between 100 and 170 feet
MSL It occurs as a narrow band across southern
and eastern Gadsden County, paralleling the val-
leys of Bear and Ocklawaha Creeks and the
Ochlockonee River.

The Wicomico Terrace occurs in a narrow band
bordering the northern shore of Lake Talquin, trend-
ing up the valleys of the tributary creeks to the lake,
and following the valley of the Ochlockonee River
northeastward into Georgia. This terrace lies be-
tween the 70 feet MSL to 100 feet MSL elevations.
The youngest terrace in Gadsden County is the

Penholoway, which lies between 42 and 70 feet
MSL The valley of the Apalachicola River, the
southeastern portion of the county, including the
Lake Talquin area, and a portion of the Ochlock-
onee River valley (Figure 5) locally occupy the
Penholoway Terrace (Healy, 1975).

Springs

Springs are waters discharged as natural
leakage or overflow from an aquifer through a
natural opening in the ground. Three of the larger
springs in Gadsden County (Figure 1) have been
developed as recreational areas. They are briefly
described below, using data taken from Rosenau,
et al. (1977).

Chattahoochee Spring

Chattahoochee Spring is located in the western
part of the town of Chattahoochee, T4N, R6W, sec.
33ac, about 0.5 mile south of Highway 90 in a
county park. The area has very high topographic
relief, and the spring flow is from seeps in the
hillside. Water discharges through a swimming
pool and overflow rivulet to the Apalachicola River.
Discharge measured 0.018 cubic feet per second
(cfs) on October 26, 1972. Water temperature and
pH were 19.5C and 7.8, respectively on the same
date.

Glen Julia Springs

Glen Julia Springs is located one mile southwest
of Mount Pleasant in Glen Julia County Park, T3N,
R5W, sec 14cd. A pool, 100 by 200 feet, receives
water from multiple seeps in the clay banks of the
pool and nearby ravine. The pool is dammed at its
northern end, and overflow from the pool is piped
through the base of the dam into South Mosquito
Creek, a tributary to the Apalachicola River. Dis-
charge on October 26, 1972 measured 0.57 cfs;
water temperature was 190C and pH was 5.3 on the
same day.

Florida Geological Survey

Indian Springs

Indian Springs is a privately operated recreation-
al facility about 2.5 miles southwest of Greensboro,
T2N, R6W, sec 36bc. Spring flow is from seeps at
the head of a small, steep-sided valley. The spring
pool is about 75 by 300 feet, and varies from 2 to
14-feet deep. An earthern dam forms the south end
of the pool and a concrete block wall encloses the
north end. Discharge water drains through a grate
at a southeast corner of the pool and runs 0.5 mile
to Telogia Creek. Volume of discharge measured
July 17, 1975 was 0.69 cfs; water temperature and
pH recorded on the same day were 250C and 5.2,
respectively.

STRATIGRAPHY

The known sediments underlying Gadsden
County range in age from Mesozoic to Recent. The
oldest rocks that crop out in the county are sedi-
ments of the Early Miocene Chattahoochee Forma-
tion. Recent terrace sands and alluvium are the
youngest. Figure 6 is a generalized stratigraphic
section in Gadsden County. The Florida Geological
Survey follows stratigraphic nomenclature of the
COSUNA (Correlation Of Stratigraphic Units of
North America) correlation program (Braunstein et
al., 1988).

The subsurface data discussed in this report was
derived from lithologic logs of water and oil well
cuttings and cores. Figure 7 is a Mesozoic cross
section derived from oil test well logs. Figure 8
shows the well and cross-section locations for a
series of geologic cross-sections (Figures 9
through 13). Figures 9 and 10 are east-west
Cenozoic cross-sections across Gadsden County.
Figures 11, 12 and 13 are north-south Cenozoic
cross sections.

Paleozoic Erathem

Paleozoic age sedimentary rocks have been
penetrated by numerous oil test wells in Florida

(Applin, 1951). To date, however, no wells in
Gadsden County have penetrated sediments older
than Cretaceous age. Oil test wells in Jefferson
County to the east and to the south in Wakulla
County have penetrated what are considered to be
Ordovician and Silurian sandstones and shales
(Barnett, 1975). A Wakulla County well (W-12114)
and well W-1866 to the west in Jackson County also
penetrated Paleozoic age basalt sills and dikes at
or near their respective total depths of 12,424 and
9,245 feet below land surface. Various basement
rock maps (Applin, 1951; Chowns and Williams,
1983; Thomas et al., 1987; Dallmeyer, 1987; and
Arthur, 1988) indicate that Paleozoic strata under-
lies Gadsden County at depths in excess of 7,000
feet.

Mesozoic Erathem

Eight oil test wells penetrated Mesozoic sedi-
ments in Gadsden County. Figure 8 shows the oil
well locations and illustrates the deep stratigraphy
of Gadsden County in a geologic cross-section.
The sediments encountered range from Upper
Cretaceous unnamed chalky limestones to Lower
Cretaceous red bed siliciclastics.

Lower Cretaceous

The oldest sediments penetrated by oil test wells
in Gadsden County are Lower Cretaceous siliciclas-
tic red beds. These sediments are typically sparse-
ly fossiliferous shales and quartz sands ranging in
color from red to purple to light green in color, and
containing sporadic lenses of limestone and cal-
careous sandstone (Applin and Applin, 1944). Well
W-6217 drilled 2,941 feet of Lower Cretaceous sand
and shale from a depth of -3,879 feet MSL to its total
depth at -6,820 feet MSL (Florida Geological Sur-
vey, unpublished well log). Due to the massive
nature of the Lower Cretaceous section, formations
were not distinguished. The Lower Cretaceous
sediments are overlain unconformably by Upper
Cretaceous siliciclastics of the Atkinson Formation.

Bulletin No. 62

_ UNIT
SYSTEM SERIES U
WEST EAST

QUATERNARY

TERTIARY

FM. = FORMATION

HOLOCENE

PLEISTOCENE

PLIO-
CENE

- a

UPPER

UNDIFFERENTIATED SAND AND CLAY

CITRONELLE FM.

MICCOSUKEE FM.

J// JACKSON BLUFF FM.

LOWER//// ///////////////////////////////

UPPER
MIDDLE
MIOCENE MID
HAWTHORN GROUP-TORREYA FM.

OLIGO-
CENE

- --- - -- -- -- --- ---- -- --- I.-

LOWER

UPPER

LOWER

CHATTAHOOCHEE FM.1

ST. MARKS FM.

7 ///////////////// ///

SUWANNEE LIMESTONE

UPPER OCALA GROUP
EOCENE MIDDLE AVON PARK FORMATION
LOWER WILCOX GROUP UNDIFFERENTIATED

PALEO- UPPER WILCOX GROUP UNDIFFERENTIATED
SCENE LOWER
UNNAMED CHALK AND LIMESTONE
UPPER
ATKINSON FORMATION
LOWER UNNAMED SANDSTONE AND SHALE

3 ABSENT IN WELLS

Figure 6. East-West diagrammatic stratigraphic section in Gadsden County.

Florida Geological Survey

/I
r-J

,W,

W37W-3577 W-8 W-4925

WL. W-1768

MILES
012345
0 1 2 3 4 5 l
0 2468
KILOMETERS --1 -

i
L__r"

r.. (0 4

-2000 ---V-
PALEOCENE-
EOCENE

UPPER CRETACEOUS
UNNAMED SAND, CLAY,
SHALE, AND MARL

UPPER MEMBER-
ATKINSON FM.

-4000 -ATLKINO
T.D.-4,024 FT. T.D.-4,190 FT.
T.D.-4,218 FT. T.D.-4,222 FT.

LOWER CRETACEOUS UNNAMI

0e a
1- (0
0~c
I I

04
CD3
toI

OIL WELL
- CROSS SECTION
LOCATION

I-

T.D.--410 FT.
T.D.-4,01O FT.

FM.

4,186 FT. f T.D.-4,240 FT.
T.D.-7,021 FT.

ED SANDSTONE AND SHALE

-5000 VERTICAL EXAGGERATION IS 40 TIMES TRUE SCALE.

Figure 7. Mesozoic geologic cross-section.

*____ -----

Figure 8. Geologic cross-section location map.

Florida Geological Survey

A A
to T |
o 0 z

OC_ -A ,' 040'

L-100

VERTICAL EXAGGERATION=
210 TIMES TRUE SCALE.

CHATTAHOO./ST. MAR s F.

srol C MAFMKS FM.
MESTONE

P

MILES
0 1 2 3 4 5

0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

T.D.=415 FT.

Figure 9. Geologic cross-section A-A'.

B 4

80 2 aO 1 mt
S30 II
Bso t r25: 2A. r ~~

MSL 0+0

-20-

--100

--150

-60-1-200

L-350 T T.D.-4,625 FT.
VERTICAL EXAGGERATION 210 TIMES TRUE SCALE.

Figure 10. Geologic cross-section B-B'.

80 -250

-200

-150 [
I

o -0 MSL

-20-

OCALA .

R"Ouui

Bulletin No. 62

U)
1 _

1-300

80--250

-200
60-

40-

20-

MSL 0-

-20-

-40-

-60-

C(

e 00
CmJ C

CITRONELLE FM. I-

AA/ )

--250
VERTICAL EXAGGERATION = 210 TIMES TRUE SCALE.

Figure 11. Geologic cross-section C-C'.

D
in

300 I

80-250 C171R4OI

60- 200

4-150 HAW1,OR

-100 Gf,

`04

MILES
0 1 2 3 4 5
012345

0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

--100 0 -
-40-
-150

-60- -200
MILES
0 1 2 3 4 5
--250 I '1 ' ,' 1
VERTICAL EXAGGERATION = 0 2 4 6 8
210 TIMES TRUE SCALE. KILOMETERS

Figure 12. Geologic cross-section D-D'.

T.D.
525 FT.

Florida Geological Survey

MILES
0 1 2 3 4 5
I I ,' i
0 2 4 6 8
024KILOMETERS
KILOMETERS

Figure 13. Geologic cross-section E-E'.

Upper Cretaceous
Atkinson Formation

Applin and Applin (1947) applied the name At-
kinson Formation to the Upper Cretaceous sedi-
ments of the Florida panhandle which were
previously referred (Applin and Applin, 1944) to the
Tuscaloosa Formation. In the western and central
panhandle, the Atkinson Formation is divided into
three informal members: the lower, middle, and
upper (Applin and Applin, 1947). Only the upper
and lower members are discernible in the eastem
Florida panhandle.

Eight oil test wells penetrated Atkinson Forma-
tion sediments in Gadsden County (Figure 8). The
lower member is a distinct, massive quartz sand,
frequently interbedded with varicolored shales;
depths to the top of this unit vary between -3,800
feet and -4,000 feet MSL Although Applin and
Applin (1947) Indicated the presence of the middle
member of the Atkinson Formation under the
Gadsden County area, it can not be differentiated
on lithologic or electric logs. The top of the upper
member falls between -3,200 and -3,350 feet MSL
under Gadsden County. Its lithology is comprised
predominantly of gray and lignitic shales with inter-
bedded sand (Florida Geological Survey, un-
published well log), and is most likely of marine
origin (Hendry and Sproul, 1966). Immediately
overlying the Atkinson Formation in Gadsden
County is a series of unnamed, Upper Cretaceous
sillciclastic and calcareous sediments.

Unnamed Upper Cretaceous Beds

A generally undifferentiated series of Upper
Cretaceous gray to greenish-gray, marly shales,
argillaceous sandstones, sandy and micaceous
clays, and occasional limestones, overlie the Atkin-
son Formation in Gadsden County. These sedi-
ments, or portions of them, have been referred to
under various names, including Austin Chalk,
Selma Chalk, and Beds of Taylor Age (Applin and
Applin, 1944; Hendry and Sproul, 1966; Yon, 1966).
In Gadsden County, these unnamed sediments are
present in eight oil test wells at a depth of ap-
proximately -2,200 + 100 feet MSL Thickness of
these sediments is a consistent 700 50 feet in all
wells. The top of these beds is the top of the
Cretaceous in Gadsden County. Age determina-
tion for these sediments has been largely through
paleontological dating. A sidewall core from well
W-1467 in northeastern Gadsden County yielded a
definitive Late Cretaceous microfossil assemblage
including Globotruncana arca, at a depth of -2,281
feet MSL (Florida Geological Survey, unpublished
well log).

801 250

MSL 0+0

-60-L-200

L-250
VERTICAL EXAGGERATION =
210 TIMES TRUE SCALE.

Bulletin No. 62

CENOZOIC ERATHEM
Tertiary System
Paleocene and Eocene Series

Upper Paleocene to Lower Eocene Wilcox Group
Undifferentiated

Applin (1964) placed the siliciclastic sediments
of the Florida panhandle containing a diagnostic
foraminiferal fauna, similar to that of the Velasco
Formation of Mexico, into the Lower Paleocene
Midway Group. Reevaluations of the planktonic
foraminifera present in Applin's logs indicate that
the faunas are actually Late Paleocene, Thanetian
Stage to Early Eocene, Ypresian Stage. Therefore,
the Midway beds of Applin (1964) are herein con-
sidered to actually be sediments of the lower Wilcox
Group (Braunstein et al., 1988).
Three oil test wells in Gadsden County
penetrated sediments correlative to the lower Wil-
cox Group: well W-1467 (-1,839 feet to -1,994 feet
MSL), well W-1768 (-2,100 feet to -2,330 feet MSL)
and well W-3577 (-1,910 feet to -2,325 feet MSL)
(Florida Geological Survey, unpublished well logs).
These sediments occur as green to gray calcareous
shales alternating with white to light brown, chalky
limestone. No fossils were noted in the lithologic
logs of these wells. However, a characteristic
foraminiferal assemblage, the Tamesi fauna (Ap-
plin, 1964), occurs in stratigraphically correlative
sections in Leon, Wakulla, and Jefferson County oil
wells. This assemblage is composed of
Globorotalia velascoensis, Globorotalia angulata,
Globorotalia pseudomenardii, Globigerina velas-
coensis, and Eponides cf. exigua.
Undifferentiated Lower Eocene Wilcox Group
sediments are present in three oil test wells in
Gadsden County. Well W-1467 penetrated Wilcox
Group sand from -1,425 feet to -1,839 feet MSL
Wells W-1768 and W-3577 encountered lithological-
ly similar intervals from -1,545 to -2,100 feet MSL
and -1,495 to -1,910 feet MSL, respectively. As they
occur in Gadsden County, the Wilcox Group sedi-
ments are typically poorly fossiliferous, glauconitic
and calcareous quartz sandstones, varying from
greenish-gray to gray in color. As with the
Paleocene Wilcox Group sediments, fossils were

sparse or absent in these intervals, and a lithologic
correlation to nearby wells was used for age es-
timate.

Middle Eocene
Avon Park Formation

Miller (1986) grouped the lithologically similar
Avon Park Limestone and Lake City Limestone of
Applin and Applin (1944) into a single unit, the Avon
Park Formation. The Avon Park Formation includes
the Middle Eocene age carbonates occurring in
northern and peninsular Florida, and is age
equivalent to the Lisbon Formation (Smith, 1907)
and Tallahatta Formation (Dall, 1898) of the western
panhandle of Florida.
Gadsden County lies in a transitional area of the
panhandle where the traditional highly fossiliferous
cream to white to brown marine limestone and
dolomite of the Avon Park Formation grades lateral-
ly into the more glauconitic, sandy, and clayey
limestones and sands of the Lisbon and Tallahatta
Formations to the west. Consequently, the Middle
Eocene sediments underlying Gadsden County
contain lithologic constituents characteristic of
both the eastern and western faces; the assign-
ment of these sediments to a specific lithologic
formation is difficult. Pascale and Wagner (1982)
lump these transitional sediments into unnamed
rocks of Claiborne age. However, Hendry and
Sproul (1966) recognize the Avon Park Formation
in wells in western Leon County, and lithologic logs
of three deep wells in Gadsden County (Florida
Geological Survey, unpublished well log) indicate
that the Middle Eocene sediments underlying most
of the county still retain sufficient Avon Park Forma-
tion lithologic character to place them in this unit.
Well W-3577, in the western portio.. ut the county,
penetrated Avon Park Formation section from -530
feet MSL to -1,495 feet MSL The general lithology
consisted of alternating grayish-brown to dark
brown dolomites and crystalline to chalky lime-
stones. From a depth of -840 feet MSL to -1,495
feet MSL, the limestones and dolomites contain up
to 20 percent sand and glauconite, displaying an
affinity to the siliciclastic Middle Eocene sediments

Florida Geological Survey

to the west. Well preserved fossils are rare in this
section, but the foraminifera Operculinoides sp. is
common at -1,315 feet MSL in W-3577. Wells W-
1467 and W-1768 also contain similar Avon Park
Formation lithologies at depths of -380 to -1,365 feet
MSL and -485 to -1,545 feet MSL, respectively.

Upper Eocene
Ocala Group

Dall (1892) proposed the name Ocala Limestone
for calcareous sediments exposed in the vicinity of
Ocala, Marion County, Florida. Since this initial
usage, the term Ocala Limestone has been
redefined by numerous authors. An excellent his-
torical review is provided by Puri (1957).
The nomenclature proposed in Puri (1957) is
generally used today by the Florida Geological
Survey. He raised the Ocala to group rank, with
three subdivisions; in ascending order, these are:
the Inglis Formation, the Williston Formation, and
the Crystal River Formation.
The Ocala Group is known from well data to
underlie most of Florida. Statewide, elevations of
the top of these sediments range from greater than
100 feet above MSL in west-central peninsular
Florida and the northern panhandle to over -1,200
feet MSL in south Florida, in the Apalachicola Em-
bayment, and near Pensacola in the westernmost
panhandle of Florida (Applin and Applin, 1944; Purl,
1957). Limestones of the Ocala Group are com-
ponents of the Floridan aquifer system, an impor-
tant fresh water aquifer.
In Gadsden County, the Ocala Group lies below
the depth attained by most water wells. Eight oil
test wells penetrated the top of the Ocala Group
section at depths ranging from -266 feet MSL to
-633 feet MSL Well W-4 drilled 380 feet of typical
Ocala Group sediments from -500 feet MSL to -880
feet MSL The lithology is comprised of cream
colored, highly fossiliferous, crystalline limestone
containing abundant benthonic foraminifera and
bryozoans. Foraminifera present are
Lepidocyclina ocalana, Operculinoides cf. wilcoxi,
Eponides sp., Operculinoides cf. moodybranchen-

sis, and Discorbisjacksonensis. Similarly, in east-
em Gadsden County, well W-3577 penetrated 540
feet of Ocala Group sediments from -305 feet MSL
to -845 feet MSL. As in the other wells that
penetrated Ocala section, the lithology in well W-
3577 was typically a white to yellowish-gray to
grayish-brown, chalky to crystalline, fossiliferous
limestone, containing varying amounts of quartz
sand, dolomite, and clay. Mollusks, bryozoa,
echinoids, and benthonic foraminifera of the genera
Lepidocyclina and Operculinoides are the most
abundant fossils in this interval. Well W-3482, in
Chattahoochee, penetrated Ocala Group sedi-
ments from -34 feet MSL to its total depth of -93 feet
MSL
Due to the massive, frequently recrystallized
nature and lack of definitive index fossils in the
Ocala Group sediments encountered in the
Gadsden County wells, formational picks were not
made in any of the wells. Puri and Vernon (1959,
1964) indicated that all three formations are probab-
ly present under the Big Bend area, with the Crystal
River Formation comprising approximately the
upper two-thirds of the Ocala Group section in the
vicinity of Gadsden County. Schmidt and Coe
(1978) however, in their study of nearby Jackson
County, felt that these formations could not be
differentiated, and called the sequence Ocala
Group Undifferentiated.

Oligocene Series
Lower Oligocene
Suwannee Limestone

Cooke and Mansfield (1936) proposed the name
Suwannee Limestone for the fossiliferous lime-
stones which crop out on the Suwannee River be-
tween the towns of White Springs (Hamilton
County) and Ellaville (Suwannee County). Vernon
(1942) and Cooke (1945) give good nomenclatural
histories for this unit. The Suwannee Limestone
underlies much of Florida with the exception of the
northern and eastern portions of the peninsula.
The Suwannee Limestone was encountered in
eight oil tests and a number of fresh water wells in
Gadsden County. This formation is also a com-

S' MILES
g* WELL LOCATION MILES
t__ 0 1 2 3 4 5

0 2 4 6 8
ALL DEPTHS ARE RELATIVE TO MEAN SEA LEVEL KILOMETERS
CONTOUR INTERVAL = 25 FEET

Figure 14. Structure contour map of the top of the Suwannee Limestone in Gadsden County.

Florida Geological Survey

ponent of the Floridan aquifer system, and is a
source of potable water in the northern peninsula
and panhandle of Florida. Uthologic sample logs
from the wells Indicate that the typical Suwannee
Limestone lithology is a white to cream to light olive
gray colored fossiliferous micriticto crystalline lime-
stone, frequently containing brown dolomite and
minor sand. Predominant fossils include mollusks
and benthonic foraminifera. Well W-4 encountered
Suwannee Limestone from -235 feet MSL to -400
feet MSL and contains a relatively abundant
foraminiferal fauna. The foraminiferal assemblage
In this well is composed of Rotalla mexicana var.
mecatepecensis, Eponides byramensis, Aster-
Igerina cf. choctawensis, Operculinoides cf. for-
resti, Operculinoides cf. dia, Lepidocyclina cf. un-
dosa, L. favosa, L. mantelli, L. supera, Rotalia
choctawensis, and Gypsina globula; mollusks
noted were Pecten sp. and Ostrea sp. (Florida
Geological Survey, unpublished well logs).
Figure 14 is a contour map on the top of the
Suwannee Limestone in Gadsden County. The ir-
regular surface of the Suwannee Limestone is un-
conformable with the overlying Lower Miocene St.
Marks and Chattahoochee Formations, and varies
in elevation from 25 feet MSL in well W-1478 to -286
feet MSL in well W-1786. Total thickness of this
formation in the wells studied varies from 19 feet
(well W-545) to 480 feet (well W- 4925).

Miocene Series
Lower Miocene

St. Marks Formation and Chattahoochee
Formation

Johnson (1888) first applied the term Tampa
Formation to Lower Miocene sediments exposed in
the vicinity of Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida.
Over the years, many authors have attempted to
redefine and divide this unit. Vernon (1942) in-
cluded all sediments lying above the Suwannee
Limestone and below the Alum Bluff Group (Middle
Miocene) in the Tampa Formation. Puri (1953)
placed all sediments previously assigned to the

Tampa Formation in the Tampa Stage, and erected
two lithologic subdivisions in the panhandle: the St.
Marks (Finch, 1823) faces and the Chattahoochee
(Langdon, 1889) faces. These faces were raised
to formation status by Purl and Vemon (1964).
The St. Marks Formation includes the offshore,
calcareous, downdip faces of the Lower Miocene,
while the Chattahoochee Formation is comprised
of the updip, generally silty, clayey, and more
dolomitic terrigenous and shallow water sediments
of the same age (Puri, 1953). Gadsden County lies
in a transitional area of the Big Bend where the
calcareous St. Marks Formation on the east and
south interfingers with the more silicicastic and
dolomitic Chattahoochee Formation in the west.
The area of interfingering occupies much of central
and eastern Gadsden County, and corresponds
approximately to the axis of the Gulf Trough (Scott,
1986).
The typical lithology of the St. Marks Formation
is a white to very light gray, fossiliferous, micritic
limestone. It may contain minor amounts of clay
and quartz sand (generally five percent or less).
The most abundant fossils are mollusk molds and
benthic foraminifera of the genera Sorites, El-
phidium, Archaias, and Puteolina.
In contrast, the Chattahoochee Formation is
generally a silty to sandy dolomite, with occasional
occurrences of limestone. Well W-329, southeast
of Chattahoochee, drilled 200 feet of Chat-
tahoochee Formation. The upper 130 feet is com-
prised of a white, unfossiliferous sandy limestone
(15 to 20 percent quartz sand); the lower 70 feet is
a light orange to grayish orange, unfossiliferous
dolomite.
The original type locality for the Chattahoochee
Formation was located at Chattahoochee Landing
on the Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee (Dall
and Stanley-Brown, 1894; Matson and Clapp,
1909). However, the precise location of a type
section relative to the river was not described. Ex-
posures of limestone in this original type area are
still visible along the access road to the old Victory
Bridge, south of U.S. Highway 90. Purl and Vernon
(1959;1964) proposed an alternate type locality for
the Chattahoochee Formation located along the

EAST JIM WOODRUFF DAM- TYPE CHATTAHOOCHEE FORMATION SECTION

FEET
- 118 -

z
O

0
a

48 -

2
0

'C
0
IL
LU
LU

0
0
2

ELEVATION: 150 FT.
LOCATION: T.04N., R.06W., SEC. 28A.

118.0 ft.: Top of section.

48.0 ft. 118.0 ft.: Covered

...................

.........................

BED 8
=BED 7
BED 6

24 -

26.5 ft. 28.5 ft.: White to light brown, unfossiliferous, sandy, clayey, dolomltic limestone.
26.0 ft. 26.5 ft.: White, moldic, sandy dolomite.
24.0 ft. 26.0 ft.: White to light brown, microcryptocrystalllne, unfossiliferous, sandy, clayey dolomite.

BED 5 14.0 ft. 24.0 ft.: Light brown, fossiliferous, moldic, slightly sandy dolomite.

BED 4 13.0 ft. 14.0 ft.: White, unfossiliferous, sandy dolomite.
10.0 ft. 13.0 ft.: Very light gray, very fine to medium grained, unfossiliferous sandstone with
BED 3 dolomite cement, varying to very light gray, sandy, unfossiliferous, euhedral dolomite.

BED 2 6.0 ft. 10.0 ft.: White to light brown, sandy dolomite.

BED 1 0.0 ft. 6.0 ft.: Light brown, unfossiliferous, clayey, dolomite.

- 0-

Figure 15. Columnar section of the type locality of the Chattahoochee Formation, east Jim Woodruff
Dam, Decatur County, Georgia (after Johnson, 1989a).

BED 18 46.0 ft. 48.0 ft.: Light brown, sandy, unfossiliferous dolomite.
BED 17 43.0 ft. 46.0 ft.: White to light gray sandy, unfossiliferous dolomite.
42.5 ft. 43.0 ft.: White to light brown, clayey unfossiliferous sandstone with calcite cement, varying to
BED 16 white to light brown, sandy, clayey unfossil ferous limestone.
BED15 40.5 ft. 42.5 ft.: Light broWn to wbhte, sandy, unfossiliferous dolomite.
BED14 37.5 ft. 40.5 ft.: White, sandy, moldic, microfossiliferous dolomite.

BED 13- 33.5 ft. 37.5 ft.: White, sandy, clayey, unfosslliferous euhedral, microcrystalllne dolomite.
BED 33. 3 ft. Modeagra to whitsandy aysnfosslfou limestone, varying to moderate
-BE D --32.8 ft. 33.0 ft.: Lig t brown, unfossiliferous, sandy dolomite.
BED 11 -- 32.5 ft. 32.8 ft.: White to very IIght green, clayey, unfossiliferous sandstone, varying to white to very
BED 10- Illht green, sandy unfossiliferous limestone.
BED 9 28. ft. 32.5 ft.: White, unfossiliferous, sandy dolomite.

Florida Geological Survey

Figure 16. Photograph showing the Chattahoochee Formation exposed along the Jim Woodruff Dam
access road (T4N, R6W, sec. 28), 1988.

03
C,

I.-

ALL DEPTHS ARE RELATIVE TO MEAN SEA LEVEL
CONTOUR INTERVAL = 25 FEET

0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

Figure 17. Structure contour map of the top of the Lower Miocene carbonates in Gadsden County.

9

Florida Geological Survey

access road to Jim Woodruff Dam just north of the
town of Chattahoochee (T4N, R6W, sec. 28a,
Decatur County, Georgia). Figure 15 shows a
graphic diagram of the section at this location.
Figure 16 is a photograph of the Chattahoochee
Formation exposure along the Jim Woodruff Dam
road.
Wells in central and eastern Gadsden County
often show an interbedded St. Marks/Chat-
tahoochee Formation relationship. Well W-4 in
central Gadsden County penetrated 200 feet of
Lower Miocene Chattahoochee/St. Marks Forma-
tion section from -40 to -240 feet. The lithology is
comprised of white, hard to chalky limestones con-
taining molds of gastropods, Archaias sp., and
Sorites sp., interspersed and alternating with unfos-
siliferous sandy limestones and lenses of green to
gray clay and sandy clay, (Florida Geological Sur-
vey, unpublished well log). Well W-7528, a core in
eastern Gadsden County, penetrated 256 feet of
undifferentiated Chattahoochee/St. Marks Forma-
tion sediments between 62 and -194 feet MSL
These sediments are comprised of sandy, clayey,
dolomitic, moldic, fossiliferous, calcilutitic lime-
stone and dolomite (Johnson, 1986). Formational
picks were not made due to the interbedded nature
of the lithologies.
The Chattahoochee/St. Marks Formation sedi-
ments overlie the Oligocene Suwannee Limestone,
and are in turn overlain unconformably by siliciclas-
tic sediments of the Lower Miocene Hawthorn
Group. Figure 17 shows structure contours of the
top of the Lower Miocene St. Marks and Chat-
tahoochee Formations in Gadsden County.

Hawthorn Group
Torreya Formation

The name Hawthorn was first proposed by Dall
and Harris (1892) for Middle Miocene sediments
exposed near the town of Hawthorne, Alachua
County, Florida. An excellent historical review of
the numerous redefinitions of these sediments is
given by Scott (1988). Huddlestun (1988) raised
the Hawthorn to group status, and Scott (1988) has

extended existing formations of the Hawthorn
Group from Georgia into Florida and erected
several new formations within the group statewide.
Banks and Hunter (1973) proposed the name Tor-
reya Formation for the Early Miocene deposits in
the eastern Florida panhandle. Huddlestun and
Hunter (1982) later suggested placing all deposits
previously referred to the Hawthorn Formation in
the western Florida panhandle into the Torreya
Formation of the Hawthorn Group. The designated
type section is located at Rock Bluff, Torreya State
Park, in Liberty County, Florida (Banks and Hunter,
1973).
The Torreya Formation is characteristically a
siliciclastic unit, consisting of a white to light olive-
gray, very fine-to- medium grained clayey sand to
sandy, silty clay, and frequently contains variable
amounts of limestone, dolomite, and phosphate
grains. Carbonate content generally increases in
the basal portion of the section. The carbonate
portions usually consist of quartz-sandy, clayey
limestone or dolomitic limestone.
Clays are frequently an important component of
the upper Torreya Formation. The dominant clay
minerals are palygorskite and smectite, with minor
amounts of sepiolite, kaolinite, and illite (Weaver
and Beck, 1977). Fuller's earth, a commercial
palygorskite clay, is mined from Torreya Formation
sediments near Quincy and Midway and northward
into Georgia.
Torreya Formation sediments underlie all of
Gadsden County (Gremillion, 1964; Scott, 1988).
The characteristic lithologies consist of occasional-
ly fossiliferous and phosphatic sands and fuller's
earth (palygorskite) clay, montmorillonite and
kaolin clay interfingered with thin limestones and
dolomites. The basal portion of the Torreya Forma-
tion is predominantly limestone. Oyster reefs com-
prised of Ostrea normalis and gastropod molds are
often associated with the carbonate units, and
marine diatoms have been noted in some of the clay
(Gremillion, 1964; Ogden, 1978). Foraminifera are
generally rare or absent; Applin (Florida Geological
Survey, unpublished well log) notes only Rotalia
beccarii at 9.75 feet MSL in well W-4. The fuller's
earth mines near Quincy have yielded fossil trees

Bulletin No. 62

(Figure 18) and vertebrate remains, including
skeletons of the extinct dugong Hesperosiren
cratagensis (Figure 19).
The Torreya Formation crops out in bluffs along
the east bank of the Apalachicola River. West of the
river, it is absent. Sporadic exposures of Torreya
along the Ochlockonee River in eastern Gadsden
County have also been recorded by Gremillion
(1964).
Depth to the top of the Torreya varies from 279
feet MSL in well W-5201 in west-central Gadsden
County, to -18.5 feet MSL in core W-7539. Thick-
ness ranges from approximately 100 feet in the
western portion of the county to about 230 feet near
Quincy.
Figure 20 is a structure contour map of the top
of the Torreya Formation in Gadsden County. The
surface of these sediments dips gradually in all
directions from a high in the north-central part of the
county. Sediments of the Citronelle and Mic-
cosukee Formations, and in some areas the Jack-
son Bluff Formation, unconformably overlie the
Torreya Formation.

Pliocene Series
Upper Pliocene
Jackson Bluff Formation

Puri and Vernon (1964) combined the Upper
MioceneEcphora and Cancellaria molluskfacies of
Puri (1953) into the Jackson Bluff Formation,
named after Jackson Bluff on the Ochlockonee
River in western Leon County. Puri and Vernon
(1964) placed the Jackson Bluff Formation uncon-
formablyabove the Middle Miocene sediments, and
below the Miccosukee Formation and younger
deposits. Based on a reexamination of the
planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofos-
sils present in samples from several Jackson Bluff
Formation outcrops, Akers (1972) and Huddlestun
(1976) reassigned this formation to the Upper
Pliocene.
The Jackson Bluff Formation has not been
recognized in any wells in Gadsden County. It is
recorded in wells and outcrop samples in Liberty
County to the south (Schmidt, 1984), and in south-
western Leon County (Hendry and Sproul, 1966).

Gremillion (1964) found no evidence of the Jackson
Bluff Formation in his study of Gadsden County; he
did, however, indicate the probable presence of
covered Jackson Bluff Formation sediments along
the north shore of Lake Talquin, stretching from
Liberty County northeastward to Bear Creek in
Gadsden County. Since the Jackson Bluff Forma-
tion sediments are not recognized in wells to the
north and west of Lake Talquin, the formation most
likely pinches out southeast of Highway 267 in the
south-central tip of Gadsden County, or grades
laterally into an unfossiliferous faces.
The lithology of the Jackson Bluff Formation, as
it occurs in Leon County, is typically a greenish-
gray to brown, very macrofossiliferous clayey sand
and sandy clay. Mollusk shells of the genera
Busycon, Ecphora, Turritella, Cancellaria, Pecten,
Strombus, Conus, Vermicularia, and Ostrea are
common to abundant in beds throughout the Jack-
son Bluff section (Purl and Vernon, 1964). A neritic
zone benthonic foraminiferal assemblage com-
prised of species of Quinqueloculina,
Spiroloculina, Virgulina, Uvigerina, Textularia, Mas-
silina, Triloculina and others (Puri and Vernon,
1964) as well as time correlative planktonic forms
such as Globorotaloides hexagona hexagona,
Globorotalia margaritae, Globorotalia cultrata
menardii, and Globorotalia multicamerata have
been reported in outcrop samples of Jackson Bluff
Formation in the panhandle area of Florida (Akers,
1972).
The late Pliocene age of the Jackson Bluff For-
mation suggests that it may locally be contem-
poraneous with the overlying Citronelle and
Miccosukee Formations (Schmidt, 1984; Huddles-
tun, 1988). Throughout most of the Florida pan-
handle, however, the Jackson Bluff sediments are
unconformably overlain by the clayey sands and
gravels of the Citronelle and Miccosukee Forma-
tions.

Citronelle Formation

Matson (1916) gave the name Citronelle Forma-
tion to the orange and red sands, clays, and gravels

0

CD
4.

SA ",. -

Figure 18a. Fossil Miocene cypress tree unearthed at the Engelhard Company Midway Mine, shortly after
its discovery in 1963 (photo courtesy of Jack Williamson, Engelhard Company).
.e 0
r(0

tC

.

-~1

Fiue a.FsilMocn ypes re nathdatteEnehadCopn MdayMn, soty fe
its dicvr n16 poocuts fJc ilasn nehr opn)

Bulletin No. 62

) '4*'..

4 chp

"; 1A4UI

Figure 18b. Fossil cypress tree cleaned and on display at the Florida Geological Survey office in
Tallahassee.

29

0 1 ft.
Scale: I I --
0 10 20 30 cm.

Figure 19. Miocene dugong Hesperosiren cratagensis found in the Floridin Company Quincy Mine in
1929.

S- - I-

/
0 /'
4 I

//
r

ITY

('
f.
ALL DEPTHS ARE RELATIVE TO MEAN SEA LEVEL
CONTOUR INTERVAL.= 25 FEET

-S

*WELL LOCATION

MILES
0 1 2 3 4 5
I I I I I I r I
0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

Figure 20. Structure contour map of the top of the Hawthorn Group Torreya Formation in Gadsden
County.

Florida Geological Survey

exposed near Citronelle, Mobile County, Alabama,
and mapped its areal occurrence as far east as
Okaloosa County in the Florida panhandle. Cooke
and Mossom (1929) extended the eastern limit of
the Citronelle Formation to near the town of Quincy
in Gadsden County.
The age of the Citronelle Formation has been a
source of debate for years. Berry (1916) assigned
the Citronelle to the Late Pliocene based on ter-
restrial plant fossils in Alabama. Later authors
(Doering, 1935; Roy, 1939) disputed this age,
primarily because the plant fossils were in beds
below the actual Citronelle sediments. Doering
(1956) placed the Citronelle in the early (pre-glacial)
Pleistocene based on the discovery of Pleistocene
Equus teeth by Deussen (1914) in Citronelle sedi-
ments in Texas. Stringfield and LaMoreaux (1957)
reevaluated a second Citronelle outcrop section
originally collected by Matson (1916) in Alabama
and found Late Pliocene plant fossils similar to
those described by Berry (1916) contained within
definite Citronelle sediments. As further evidence
for a Pliocene age, Stringfield and LaMoreaux
(1957) argue that the oldest Pleistocene marine
terraces in Florida overlie Citronelle Formation
deposits. Doering (1960) countered by citing the
discovery of the Lower Pleistocene foraminifera
Hyalinea balthica and Globigerina (Globorotalia)
inflata in Citronelle-equivalent section in an offshore
Louisiana oil exploration well. The disagreement
has not been resolved. An absence of locally-cor-
relatable index fossils in most of the Citronelle For-
mation precludes accurate age dating of the unit.
For the purpose of this report, the modern consen-
sus (Braunstein et al., 1988) that the Citronelle
Formation is most likely Late Pliocene in age is
herein adopted.
Sediments of the Citronelle Formation blanket
most of western Gadsden County from Dogtown
and Quincy westward. It caps many of the hills in
the county, and lies unconformably upon sedi-
ments of the Hawthorn Group. Citronelle Forma-
tion sediments extend eastward to just west of the
valley of the Little River. Here erosion has removed
most Citronelle sediments, and the valley is
blanketed by Pleistocene and Holocene clays and

sands. East of the Little River, the reddish siliciclas-
tics are lithologically more similar to the Mic-
cosukee Formation (Figure 9).
The general lithology of the Citronelle Formation
in Gadsden County is orange to red, clayey,
medium to coarse-grained quartz sands, with oc-
casional clay lenses and beds of friable quartz
pebbles. Cross-bedding is present in many ex-
posures. The original thickness of the formation is
uncertain, as erosion has removed the upper por-
tion over much of the county. In most wells and
outcrops, it is the uppermost unit, and generally
varies from about 20-feet thick just east of Quincy
to nearly 100 feet in western Gadsden County south
of Chattahoochee (Figure 21).

Miccosukee Formation

Hendry and Yon (1967) gave the name Mic-
cosukee Formation to the interbedded clays, silts,
sands and gravels lying above the Hawthorn Group
sediments and below the Pleistocene to Holocene
age sediments in the Big Bend area of north Florida.
In eastern Gadsden County, Miccosukee Forma-
tion sediments are somewhat similar in overall
lithology to the Citronelle Formation. However, the
Miccosukee Formation is generally comprised of
fine-to-medium grained clayey sands. Gravel is
less common than in the Citronelle, and the clays
occur primarily in thin, discontinuous beds or in thin
laminae.
Debate exists as to where in the county the
transition from Miccosukee to Citronelle occurs.
Many of the exposures in pits and in the fuller's earth
mines appear to be transitional between typical
Citronelle Formation lithology and Miccosukee For-
mation. As previously discussed, the Little River,
with some exceptions, may be an arbitrary transi-
tion line between the two formations. Miccosukee
Formation lithology is found in a few locations west
of the river, however, particularly in road cuts along
S.R. 12 and U.S. Highway 90 just east of Quincy.
As with the Citronelle Formation, age dating the
Miccosukee accurately is not possible due to a lack
of definitive index fossils. In Leon County, this

O

Figure 21. Photograph of Citronelle Formation sediments exposed in the Gadsden County Road
Department Walker Pit (T3N, R6W, sec. 28c), 1983.

Florida Geological Survey

formation overlies the upper Pliocene age Jackson
Bluff Formation. Originally placed in the Late
Miocene (Hendry and Yon, 1967) the Miccosukee
Formation is now considered to be age equivalent
to the upper Pliocene Citronelle Formation
(Braunstein et al., 1988).
In Gadsden County, the Miccosukee Formation
sediments cap the topographically high areas east
of the Little River. These sediments occur in a band
trending northeastward into Georgia, and lie uncon-
formably on Miocene Torreya Formation deposits.
From eastern Gadsden County, the Miccosukee
extends eastward through Leon and Jefferson
counties, to eventually pinch out in eastern Madison
County (Hendry and Sproul, 1966; Yon, 1966; and
Hoenstine and Spencer, in preparation).
Core W-7537 in southeastern Gadsden County
encountered 28 feet of Miccosukee Formation from
82 feet MSL to 110 feet MSL The lithology was
comprised of poorly indurated, grayish-orange,
clayey, quartz sand. Further to the north, core
W-7528 penetrated Miccosukee Formation from
surface to 43.5 feet (230 feet MSL to 186.5 feet
MSL); the lithology was a poorly indurated, light
yellowish-orange to grayish-orange, mottled
clayey, quartz sand and sandy clay. Figure 22
shows a roadcut exposure of Miccosukee Forma-
tion just east of Havana on U.S. 90. Throughout
eastern Gadsden County, the Miccosukee Forma-
tion comprises the surficial sediment layer. In a few
areas, especially along the Ochlockonee River and
Lake Talquin, undifferentiated Pleistocene and
Holocene sands unconformably overlie the Mic-
cosukee.

Pleistocene and Holocene Series

Pleistocene and Holocene undifferentiated quartz
sand and clay comprise the surficial sediments in
several areas of Gadsden County (Schmidt, 1979).
Most Pleistocene sediments are marine terrace
deposits lying unconformably on the Citronelle,
Miccosukee, Torreya or Chattahoochee Forma-
tions. Holocene alluvial deposits are concentrated
along the major rivers,-streams and creeks and are

often difficult to differentiate from the Pleistocene
sediments.

STRUCTURE

The subsurface structure of Gadsden County
has been influenced by several regional structural
features. Figure 23 illustrates the location and
orientation of these features.

Peninsular Arch

The Peninsular Arch forms the axis of peninsular
Florida (Applin, 1951). It is a southeast-trending
structural high in pre-Mesozoic sediments. Al-
though no direct structural relationships are known
to exist between the arch and the Tertiary sedi-
ments of Gadsden County, the downwarped
western flank of the Peninsular Arch extends
beneath the Big Bend area (Hendry and Sproul,
1966).

Apalachicola Embayment

Gadsden County is situated on or near the axis
of a broad sedimentary basin known as the
Apalachicola Embayment. Pressler (1947) es-
timated its size as approximately 30,000 square
miles. Schmidt (1984) provides an excellent inter-
pretive and nomenclatural history of this feature.
Oil test wells have shown the sediment fill of the
basin to be about 13,000 feet of Triassic to
Holocene-age deposits, all resting on Paleozoic
age metamorphic rocks (Applegate, et al., 1978;
Schmidt and Clark, 1980).

Chattahoochee Anticline

North and northwest of the Apalachicola Embay-
ment is a minor structural high called the Chat-
tahoochee Anticline (Veach and Stephenson, 1911;
Purl and Vernon, 1964). This structure is an elon-
gate anticline trending northeast-southwest.
Oligocene and Eocene rocks are exposed at the

Bulletin No. 62

Figure 22. Photograph of Miccosukee Formation sediments exposed in a road cut along U.S. 90 (T2N,
R3W, sec. 16dc) east of Quincy, 1989.

Florida Geological Survey

SOUTHEAST
SGEORGIA
EMBAYMENT

MILES
100
1

120
KILOMETERS

150

240

6
r

Figure 23. Principal subsurface structures of north Florida.

1

Bulletin No. 62

surface in the vicinity of the crest. Oligocene and
younger sediments erosionally pinch out or are
truncated against it (Schmidt, 1984).

Gulf Trough

Gadsden County lies in a transitional area be-
tween the carbonate-evaporite faces to the
southeast and the terrigenous siliciclastic faces to
the north and west. Dall and Harris (1892)
proposed the existence of a channel-like area of
erosion separating the continental border from the
Eocene and Miocene islands of the Florida penin-
sula. Later authors, including Veach and Stephen-
son (1911), Applin and Applin (1944), Pressler
(1947), and Jordan (1954) recognized a structural
channel or trough, possibly a graben, in older sedi-
ments extending from southeast Georgia south-
westward to the Big Bend area. Much of the early
literature, which considered the trough to be a
marine erosional feature, referred to it as the
Suwannee Straits. Schmidt (1984) reviewed the
structural history of the Gulf Trough. During Late
Cretaceous through Oligocene time, this elongate
structure connected the Southeast Georgia Em-
bayment with the Apalachicola Embayment
(Pressler, 1947). Structure maps on different strati-
graphic horizons indicate the axis of the trough
migrated over time. In the Late Mesozoic, the
trough axis moved southeastward to the vicinity of
western Taylor and Madison Counties; the direction
reversed in the Early Tertiary and the trough moved
northwestward to the present Gadsden/Liberty
County area (Schmidt, 1984). The Influence of the
trough is apparent on the structure contour map of
the Oligocene age Suwannee Limestone (Figure
14); the contour lines on the top of this formation
trend northeastward into Georgia, defining the rela-
tive Oligocene position of the trough within
Gadsden County. Throughout its existence as an
open connection between the embayments, the
trough was an area of slow deposition or non-
deposition. Chen (1965) believed that strong,
scouring marine currents in the trough formed both
a lithologic and biologic faces barrier during almost

the entire Paleocene through Eocene time. Al-
though its influence as a sediment barrier apparent-
ly waned by the end of the Oligocene, wells drilled
in Oligocene and younger sedi ments over the
trough show a sediment thickening which may be
related to post-Eocene downwarping in the trough
(Hendry and Sproul, 1966).

Ocala Platform

The Ocala Platform is a gentle, post-Oligocene
flexure in west-central peninsular Florida. This
structural high has an axis parallel to that of the
Peninsular Arch, but the two features are unrelated
(Applin, 1951). The platform exposes the Ocala
Group and Avon Park Formation near its crest;
Oligocene and younger sediments are erosionally
truncated against the flanks of the structure (Applin,
1951).

GEOLOGIC HAZARDS

Gadsden County is situated in a geologically
stable region of North America. The probability of
the occurrence of a serious geologic hazard, such
as a major earthquake, is low. Localized geologic
hazards are more likely to affect small portions of
the county. These include seasonal flooding,
landslides, and sinkholes.

Flooding

The low-permeability of the surficial clayey sedi-
ments covering much of northern and central
Gadsden County results in high precipitation runoff
into the numerous drainage streams in the county.
During periods of heavy or sustained rainfall, the
streams and creeks may fill to capacity, eventually
overflowing onto the the surrounding land and filling
topographically-low areas. Serious flooding has
affected the county on at least two occasions in
recent times. In early April of 1948, heavy showers
caused major flooding throughout much of north-
ern Florida. Figure 24 shows the flooded main
street of River Junction on April 2, 1948. Heavy
precipitation associated with a tropical storm in

Florida Geological Survey

September of 1969 also caused extensive flooding
of low-lying areas throughout the county (Bridges
and Davis, 1972). In this flood, several highway
bridges were inundated, and some were damaged
by raging waters.

The Pitt Landslide

Gadsden County's most notable landslide oc-
curred on April 1, 1948, about three miles northwest
of Greensboro (T3N, R5W, sec 32 dc) on the farm
of Mr. D. W. Pitt. The slide opened a semicircular,
500-feet diameter pit (Figure 25), with soil flow to
the northeast into Flat Creek. While the history of
the slide is not well documented, flood-swollen Flat
Creek probably initiated the sliding at the north-
eastern edge of the pit. Such landslides are not
commonplace in Gadsden County. Similar slump-
ing processes are known to occur on a smaller
scale at the heads of drainage ravines, resulting in
the "steepheads" common in Northern Florida.

Sinkholes

Sinkholes typically occur in areas underlain by
karstic limestone with a thin, porous sediment
veneer. Slightly acidic ground waters slowly dis-
solve subsurface caverns in the limestone, which
may ultimately collapse under the weight of the
surficial sediments, forming sinkholes. Limestone
underlies much of Gadsden County, but is
protected by variable thicknesses of low-per-
meability clays and clayey sands of the Citronelle
and Miccosukee Formations. These clays retard
downward percolation of water, and reduce the
dissolution of the underlying limestone. The prob-
ability of sinkhole formation is therefore low for most
of northern and central Gadsden County. Areas of
the county with the highest probabilities of
sinkholes are characterized by shallow-lying lime-
stone or thin or absent clayey overburden sedi-
ments. These areas include northwestern Gadsden
County, where the Chattahoochee Formation nears
the surface, and at the southern tip of the county,
south of the Cody Scarp, where the low per-
meability clays are thin or absent.

GROUND WATER

Ground water is water that fills the pores and
interstitial spaces in the rocks and sediments
beneath the surface of the earth. Most of Gadsden
County's ground water is derived from precipitation
within the county, in neighboring Florida counties
and in south Georgia. A portion of the precipitation
leaves the area by surface runoff in stream flow or
by evapotranspiration. The remainder soaks into
the ground and some moves downward into the
porous zone of saturation. The top of the zone of
saturation is known as the water table. Once in the
zone of saturation, the water moves under the in-
fluence of gravity towards discharge points such as
wells, seeps, springs, or eventually the Gulf of
Mexico. Some of the water seeps into the deeper
aquifer units, providing recharge to them.
In Gadsden County, three primary ground-water
units are present. These are the surficial aquifer
system, the intermediate confining unit, and the
Floridan aquifer system (Southeastern Geological
Society Ad Hoc Committee, 1986).

Surficial Aquifer System

Water in the shallow Plio-Pleistocene sand and
clay units above the Hawthorn Group sediments is
not confined and the water level is free to rise and
fall. This unconfined water comprises the surficial
aquifer system, and is not used extensively for
public consumption (Pascale and Wagner, 1982).
Most wells tapping the surficial aquifer system are
dug wells, and yield less than five gallons per minute
(gpm) (Wagner, 1983).

Intermediate Confining Unit

Sediments of the Hawthorn Group underlie the
surficial aquifer in Gadsden County, and comprise
an intermediate confining unit for the deeper
Floridan aquifer system (Wagner, 1983). The clays,
sandy clays, and marls of the upper part of this unit
are generally of low permeability. In the lower half
of the intermediate confining unit, thin carbonate

Bulletin No. 62

Figure 24. Photograph of the flooded Main Street in River Junction, Gadsden County, April 2, 1948.

Florida Geological Survey

Figure 25a. Aerial photograph of the Pitt landslide, April 2, 1948, T3N, R5W, sec 32 dc (photo by
Tallahassee Aircraft Corporation).

Bulletin No. 62

Figure 25b. Photograph looking southwest at the scarp formed by the Pitt landslide (photo by R.O.
Vernon, April 5,1948).

Florida Geological Survey

beds are interbedded with the clays, and these
create minor water-bearing zones generally yield-
ing less than 10 gpm (Wagner, 1983). Leakage in
the form of seeps frequently occurs from these
minor aquifers in areas where rivers and streams
dissect the water-bearing zones of the Hawthorn
Group. The low permeability sediments within the
intermediate confining unit also create an artesian
aquifer in the underlying carbonates of the Floridan
aquifer system.

Floridan Aquifer System

The name Floridan Aquifer was originally
proposed by Parker, et al. (1955) for the artesian
aquifer including all or parts of formations from
Middle Eocene age to Middle Miocene age. The
unit name was formally modified to Floridan aquifer
system by the Southeastern Geological Society Ad
Hoc Committee (1986). In Gadsden County, the St.
Marks and Chattahoochee Formations comprise
the upper portion of the Floridan aquifer system.
Most public supply wells draw water from the upper
Floridan aquifer system limestones at depths rang-
ing from 120 to 300 feet below land surface. The
Suwannee Limestone, the Ocala Group, and the
Avon Park Formation comprise the lower units of
the Floridan aquifer system in north Florida (Pas-
cale and Wagner, 1982).
Two zones of differing hydrologic character are
present within the Floridan aquifer system underly-
ing Gadsden County (Wagner, 1983). One zone,
occurring only in the northwest corner of the county
near Chattahoochee, yields water in excess of 1000
gpm. Sediments within this zone are largely porous
limestones, with solution-enlarged fissures or joints
and well developed secondary porosity. In addi-
tion, this zone occurs immediately adjacent to the
extensive recharge areas of eastern Jackson Coun-
ty, where porous surficial sediments directly overlie
the Floridan aquifer system. Conductivity within
this zone is estimated to be as high as 450 ft/day,
with transmissivities exceeding 50,000 ft2/day
(Wagner, 1983).
The second zone, which comprises the Floridan

aquifer system in the remainder of Gadsden Coun-
ty, is strikingly different. Thick, low-permeability
sediments of the Hawthorn Group overlie the
Floridan in this region. There is no direct recharge
area present, and the porosity of the limestones
within this area has not been increased by the
acidizing effects of rainwater (Wagner, 1983).
Recharge depends on leakage through the overly-
ing confining unit sediments. As a result, maximum
well yields are about 300 gpm near Quincy;
hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity values are
also low, at 25 ft/day and 5000 ft2/day, respectively
(Wagner, 1983).

Potentiometric Surface

Water confined within an artesian aquifer is
generally under a pressure greater than atmos-
pheric, resulting in a positive static head. The
height to which water rises in tightly cased wells
penetrating an artesian aquifer forms an imaginary
surface called the potentiometric surface. If the
land elevation of a well is below the level of the
potentiometric surface, the well will flow.
Figure 26 shows the potentiometric surface con-
tours for the upper Floridan aquifer system in
Gadsden County. The potentiometric surface
varies from less than 40 feet MSL in southwest
Gadsden County to over 70 feet above MSL in the
extreme northwest corner of the county. Water flow
in the aquifer is generally perpendicular to the con-
tours, in this case, to the southeast.

MINERAL RESOURCES

The following discussion provides a general
overview of the near-surface mineral commodities
and petroleum resource potential for Gadsden
County. Table 2 is a listing of the present mineral
producers in Gadsden County.

CLAY

Clay occurs as a major constituent of the
Citronelle and Miccosukee Formations and the

C0

LIBERTY COUNTY

L-

/ -

L-r'
ELEVATION CONTOURS ARE IN FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL
CONTOUR INTERVAL = 10 FEET.

MILES
012345

0 2 4 6 8
KILOMETERS

Figure 26. Potentiometric surface map of the Floridan aquifer system in Gadsden County.

" ----- __ _GEORGIA

O /

-J(

1I ~

4,
S.,

Florida Geological Survey

Table 2. Mineral Producers by Commodity in Gadsden County (from Spencer, 1989)
CLAY

Company
Apalachee Correctional Institute
P.O. Box 699
Sneads, FL 32460

Mine
Location(T.R.S)
Chattahoochee Pit
3N, 6W, sec. 8

FULLER'S EARTH

Engelhard Corporation
P.O. Box 220
Attapulgus, GA 31715

LaCamelia/Swisher Mines:
3N, 3W, multiple
Midway Mine:
1 N, 2W, multiple

Floridin
P.O. Box 510
Quincy, FL 32351

Milwhite Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 96
Attapulgus, GA 31715

Oil Dri
P.O. Box 200A
Ochlocknee, GA 31773

Capital Asphalt
P.O. Box 5767
Tallahassee, FL 32314

Dravo Basic Material, Inc.
P.O. Box 1685
Mobile, AL 36601

Complex A Mine:
3N, 3W, multiple
Complex B Mine:
3N, 3W, sec. 17
Complex C Mine:
3N, 3W, sec. 35

McCall Mine:
3N, 3W, sec. 4

Fletcher McGinnis Mine:
3N, 3W, secs. 29,30,31,32

SAND

Davis Pit:
1N, 2W, sec. 21
Capital Asphalt Pit:
1N, 4W, sec. 21

Chattahoochee River Plant
3N, 6W, sec. 5

Gadsden County Road Department
P.O. Box 951
Quincy, FL 32351

Clark Pit:
2N, 6W, secs. 12,13
Fletcher Bar Pit:
2N, 6W, sec. 16
St. Hebron Pit:
2N, 3W, sec. 3
Walker Pit:
3N, 6W, sec. 28

River Bend Pit
1 N, 4W, sec. 20

River Bend Sand Company
P.O. Box 1220
Quincy, FL 32351

Bulletin No. 62

Hawthorn Group in Gadsden County. For the most
part, the clays in the Citronelle and Miccosukee
Formations are Intermixed with varying proportions
of quartz sand and gravel or occur as very thin
discontinuous beds. Although these formations
occur over much of Gadsden County, the impure,
thinly-bedded nature of the contained clays
precludes extensive utilization for fired products.
However, the Apalachee Correctional Institution
has, in the past, mined clay from its Chattahoochee
Pit (T3N,R6W, sec. 8) for the local manufacture of
brick. Bell (1924) provided physical property test
results from what was probably a Chattahoochee
Formation clay sample taken near the State Hospi-
tal at Chattahoochee:

Plasticity, judged by feel..............Fair
Water of plasticity.........................21.40%
Pore water..................................... 0.10%
Shrinkage water............................21.30%
Linear air shrinkage......................6.40%
Volume air shrinkage....................17.90%
Modulus of rupture, avg................84.5 pds /In2
Slaking test.................................... 36 hours

Bell (1924) also listed test results from a second
Citronelle Formation sample taken on the Key Plan-
tation, three miles southeast of Quincy, which con-
tained numerous limonite concretions:

Plasticity, judged by feel..................Excellent
Water of plasticity..............................42.75%
Pore water........................................ 0.27%
Shrinkage water.................................24.48%
Linear air shrinkage.........................5.70%
Volume air shrinkage......................15.75%
Modulus of rupture, avg....................92.5 pd/in2
Slaking test...................................... 24 hours
Overfires at cone 5.

This sample had good plasticity and drying proper-
ties, but had low transverse strength and was of no

value for making fired products.
Alluvial clays associated with the Apalachicola
and Ochlockonee Rivers have been mined in the
past in Gadsden County for use in brick and tile
making. One clay deposit located on what was
then the State Hospital Farm, one mile northwest of
Chattahoochee, was mined in the early 1920's for
brick manufacture (Bell, 1924). This deposit repor-
tedly exceeded 5 or6 feet thick and covered an area
of 60 to 80 acres in northwest Gadsden County and
southwest Georgia. The following physical proper-
ties are recorded in Bell (1924):

Plasticity, judged by feel...................Poor
Water of plasticity.............................32.25%
Pore water...........................................5.40%
Shrinkage water..................................29.85%
Linear air shrinkage..........................17.50%
Volume air shrinkage........................45.75%
Steel hard at cone 010.

Bell (1924) also reported two alluvial clay mining
operations in eastern Gadsden County. The
Ochlocknee Brick Company mined a five-feet thick
Ochlockonee River floodplain clay near Lawrence
for use in common brick manufacture (Figure 27).
This deposit was reportedly suitable for the
manufacture of an excellent grade of common
brick, hollow brick ware, and drain tile. The follow-
ing table from Bell (1924) summarizes the physical
properties of this clay:

Plasticity, judged by feel..............Excellent
Water of plasticity...........................26.00%
Pore water..................................... 0.52%
Shrinkage water ...........................25.48%
Linear air shrinkage......................12.20%
Volume air shrinkage.....................33.20%
Modulus of rupture, avg...............988.0 pds/in2
Slaking test................................... 2 days
Steel hard at cone 010.

Florida Geological Survey

Figure 27. Photograph of the Ochlocknee Brick Company Plant at Lawrence, circa 1924 (Florida
Geological Survey photo archives).

Bulletin No. 62

The Tallahassee Pressed Brick Company mined
a second five feet thick alluvial clay deposit at an
unrecorded location on the Ochlockonee River
upstream from Lawrence. From this clay the com-
pany produced building brick, fireproofing, hollow
blocks, and drain tile at its Havana plant during the
1920's. The following physical properties are
reported by Bell (1924):

Plasticity, judged by feel................Excellent
Water of plasticity............................25.65%
Linear air shrinkage.......................10.3%
Volume air shrinkage.....................27.8%
Modulus of rupture, avg................498.4 pds/in2
Slaking test...................................48 hours
Steel hard at cone 010.

Residual clays from the Chattahoochee Forma-
tion are generally calcareous, with high shrinkage
and poor plasticity (Bell, 1924). Most of these clays
are of no value in manufacturing. One exception
was noted by Bell (1924) at the northeast edge of
River Junction, where a variably thick Chat-
tahoochee Formation clay was mined for construc-
tion brick in 1907. Several buildings in River
Junction and Chattahoochee were reportedly con-
structed of bricks made from this clay deposit which
underlies a small valley at River Junction, and in
places, approached 15 feet in thickness. Bell
(1924) reported the following physical properties
for this clay:

Plasticity, judged by feel.............Excellent
Water of plasticity.......................28.45%
Pore water................................... 1.66%
Shrinkage water..........................26.79%
Linear air shrinkage....................11.7%
Volume air shrinkage..................29.4%
Modulus of rupture, avg.............451.8 pds/in2
Slaking test...............................2 minutes

Miocene clays associated with the Hawthorn
Group sediments (considered by Bell (1924) to be
clays of the Alum Bluff Group) have been mined for
brick manufacture at various locations in Gadsden
County. Bell (1924) noted the existence of plants
at Hinson, circa 1859, and at Mount Pleasant, Gret-
na, Quincy, and Chattahoochee during other un-
specified periods prior to his 1924 publication. The
Quincy plant extracted clays from the overburden
removed during Fuller's earth mining. Bell (1924)
provided the following physical properties for an
overburden clay sample from the Quincy location:

Plasticity, judged by feel..............Excellent
Water of plasticity........................25.65%
Pore water.....................................0.50%
Shrinkage water..........................25.15%
Linear air shrinkage....................12.20%
Volume air shrinkage..................36.82%
Modulus of rupture, avg..............315.7 pds/in2
Slaking test................................. 2 minutes
Steel hard at cone 5.

Fuller's Earth

Commercial deposits of fuller's earth, a Haw-
thorn Group palygorskite (attapulgite) clay, occur
in northern Gadsden Coun ty. These deposits were
apparently formed in shallow Miocene lagoons or
tidal flats, and trend in a northeasterly direction into
south Georgia, approximately parallel to the axis of
the Gulf Trough (Weaver and Beck, 1977).
The name fuller's earth dates back to ancient
times when fine-grained sediments were used in the
process of fulling, or increasing the weight and bulk
of woolen cloth. Since biblical times, fuller's earth
has been used as an absorbent cleaning material
for cloth.
Fuller's earth is primarily composed of the clay
mineral palygorskite (attapulgite), and has been
mined in the Gadsden County area since 1895
(Calver, 1957). The Floridin Company is currently
mining palygorskite in several areas north and north

Florida Geological Survey

east of Quincy (Table 2). Two commercial grades
of clay are produced from these mines: high yield
grade and general purpose grade. High yield grade
is nearly pure palygorskite, and exhibits excellent
thixotropic (gelling) properties; uses of the high
grade include drilling mud, no-carbon copy papers,
liquid fertilizer suspenders, drugs, and paint thick-
eners (Kirk, 1983). General purpose grade clay is a
mixture of palygorskite and montmorillonite. Due
to its high absorbency, this product is used as an
oil and grease absorbent, cat litter, and as insecti-
cide carrier (Kirk, 1983). In addition to the Floridin
Company, three other companies currently mine
fuller's earth in Gadsden County. The Engelhard
Corporation operates the LaCamelia and Swisher
mines northeast of Quincy in T3N, R3W, and the
Midway Mine in T1 N, R2W. The Milwhite Company
operates the McCall mine in T3N, R3W, section 4.
Oil Dri recently began mining at the Fletcher Mc-
Ginnis Mine No. 1, situated at the intersection of
sections 29, 30, 31 and 32 of T3N, R3W (Schmidt et
al., 1979; Campbell, 1986; Spencer, 1989).
In Gadsden County the mineable fuller's earth
clay occurs in irregular, lenticular units and discon-
tinuous beds within a variable series of fine to
medium sands, silt, clay, minor carbonates, and
occasional phosphate (Campbell, 1986). The ore
is typically a blue to bluish-gray to grayish-green
palygorskite clay, occurring in two distinct beds.
The upper bed ranges up to eight-feet thick, and is
mined only if it is substantially free of siliciclastics
and carbonate impurities; the lower unit varies be-
tween 2 and 16-feet thick and is the primary com-
mercial bed (Kirk, 1983). These units are generally
separated by a variably thick, gray, clayey sand
bed, which frequently contains carbonate beds,
mollusks, vertebrate fossils and fossil wood. Figure
28 illustrates the stratigraphic section at the Engel-
hard Swisher Mine located north of Quincy, Florida.
In this mine, the upper clay bed is quartz sandy and
calcareous, and is not economical to mine. Only
the lower grayish-blue palygorskite bed is mined.
Figure 29 shows the lower fuller's earth bed at the
Swisher Mine.
Mining of fuller's earth is accomplished primarily
by earth-moving heavy equipment. Bulldozers and

scrapers are used to remove the overburden, which
consists of poorly consolidated to occasionally ce-
mented sands, clays, and gravels of the Citronelle
and Miccosukee Formations. Thickness of this
overburden material averages 75 feet in northern
Gadsden County, but may vary between a few feet
and 100 feet (Patterson, 1974). Once the overbur-
den is removed, the fuller's earth is stripped and
loaded onto trucks by dragline (Figure 30). Trucks
then haul the mined material to processing plants
where impurities are extracted and the clay is dried,
size graded, and packaged.
The fuller's earth mines in Gadsden County fall
within the Meigs-Attapulgus-Quincy district of
Florida and Georgia (Patterson, 1974; Spencer et
al., 1989). Historically, this district has produced
the bulk of the fuller's earth mined in the United
States since 1895. Over 995,000 short tons, worth
6.5 million dollars, were mined in the district in 1986
(U. S. Bureau of Mines, 1986).

Lmestone and Dolomite

Miocene limestone (CaCO3) and dolomite
(CaMg(C03)2) belonging to the Chattahoochee
Formation occur in near-surface deposits in.
northwestern Gadsden County. There are present-
ly no active quarries in the county. Small-scale
quarrying operations have existed near Chat-
tahoochee in the past. One quarry south of Chat-
tahoochee near River Junction, circa 1898,
produced material used for cement, mortar and
building stone; around 1925 small quantities of
dolomitic limestone were dug one-half mile east of
Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee for use in
a local dam (Cummings, 1899; Mossom, 1925).
The following compositional analysis of the lime-
stone obtained for the dam construction was given
in Mossom(1925):

Component

Percentage Composition

Silica (SiO2)
Iron and Alumina (Fe, Al)
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
Magnesium carbonate (MgCO3)

20.40
3.74
41.39
35.47

Bulletin No. 62

PLEISTOCENE HOLOCENE
UNDIFFERENTIATED SURFICIAL SANDS ..

MOTTLED, YELLOWISH-RED,
< : CLAYEY QUARTZ SAND

'*- QUARTZ SAND AND CLAY,
-"* SANDY LIMESTONE, FOSSILS (8-10 ft

/^.Yc/-----

-. SHELLY SANDS AND CLAYS (8-10 ft.)

S-.- GREENISH-GRAY SANDY CLAY (4 ft.)
) WHITE SANDY LIMESTONE (2 ft.)

S. -'. CALCAREOUS, SANDY CLAY (10-12 ft.)

-88-INCH CALCAREOUS CLAY LENS
__- _MODERATELY INDURATED CLAYEY SAND (3 ft.)

S GRAYISH-BLUE PALYGORSKITE (4-5 ft.) UMIN
o,-. UNIT

GENERALIZED GEOLOGIC SECTION
ENGELHARD SWISHER MINE

Figure 28. Stratigraphic section at the Engelhard Swisher Mine north of Quincy, T3N, R3W (from Spencer
et al., 1989).

w
W

0o

ci

.)

.r o
Pra
0

bt _. " .-

,_.I I.. "I e .. .

Figure 29. Hawthorn Group fuller's earth sediments expose-d: at the Eng elhard Swisher Mine (rI3N, R3W/),

1988.
I-

0:
~6..-~ ~0

,-_7'- rl. i r0,
:" ;P~ /C
1. CD

Figur 29 atonGopfle' at eiet xoe tteEgiadSihrMn TN 3)
1988.r

-A

Figure 30. Dragline mining at the Engelhard Swisher Mine (T3N, R3W), Gadsden County, 1988.

'r .
a ~;.:t~
": .C~:

:-- :
:~

Florida Geological Survey

Most of the limerock derived from the Chat-
tahoochee Formation occurs in thin, impure beds
which are not economical for large scale mining,
and additionally has the undesirable characteristic
of being too soft for use as road base (Patterson,
1974).
Mossom (1925) and Schmidt et al. (1979) indi-
cated a small area of limestone outcrop in the
northeastern corner of Gadsden County, along the
Ochlockonee River. The formational affinity of this
limestone has not, to this writer's knowledge, been
stated in the literature. Based on the local stratig-
raphy, it is tentatively assigned to the Torreya For-
mation of the Hawthorn Group. Mossom (1925)
provides the following compositional analysis of a
sample of this limestone taken at Ponto Springs,
T3N, R1W, sec 10:

Component

Percentage Composition

Silica (Si02)
Iron and Alumina (Fe, Al)
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
Magnesium carbonate (MgCO3)
Undetermined

49.58
1.96
44.30

5.16

Although unproven, the high quartz sand content,
as well as the soft nature of most Hawthorn Group
limestones, suggest that this limestone is not of
commercial quality.

Sand and Gravel

Quartz sand and gravel (Si02) occur in abun-
dance over most of Gadsden County. It is a prin-
cipal component of the Holocene alluvial deposits
and the relict Plio-Pleistocene marine deposits, as
well as the Citronelle and Miccosukee Formations
which cap the Tallahassee Hills. Much of this sand
occurs interbedded and consolidated with clays
and silts, and washing is required to extract the
sand. Martens (1928) analyzed a sample from the
Citronelle Formation, taken one mile southwest of
Concord, Gadsden County, with the following
results:

Silt and Clay
Percentage Passing Each Sieve (Elutriaton Loss
1/4 inch 10 20 50 100 200

- 95.0 85.5 61.9 50.5

41.2

Sand and gravels occurring in river banks, bars,
and beds are generally clean and require little
processing before use. Hendry and Sproul (1966)
report that sands have been mined from the Leon
County side of the Ochlockonee River. In Gadsden
County, sand has been extracted from the Ochlock-
onee River east of the town of Gibson, for use in
construction and in the manufacture of concrete-
bonded brick. Martens (1928) reported similar
operations by the Tallahassee Pressed Brick Com-
pany, and presented the following analysis of sand
collected from an Ochlockonee River bar southeast
of Havana:

Percentage Passing Each Sieve
1/4 inch 10 20 50 80 100 200

100 91.5 28.4 3.7 3.0
Dravo Basic Materials Incorporated currently
dredges sand and gravel from the Apalachicola
River at their Chattahoochee River plant, T3N, R6W,
sec. 5. A sample collected by Martens (1928) at the
Chattahoochee mining location yielded the follow-
ing results:

Percentage Passing Each Sieve
1/4 Inch 10 20 50 80 100 200

100 60.6 13.1 1.7 0.5

Capital Asphalt Company maintains sand opera-
tions at the Davis Pit (T1N, R2W, sec. 21) and the
Capital Asphalt Pit, off Highway 267 (T1N, R4W,
sec. 21). The primary use for this sand is road
construction and asphalt additive.
River Bend Sand Company also operates a sand
mine near S.R. 267 south of Quincy (T1N, R4W, sec.

Bulletin No. 62

20). This mine produces primarily concrete and
masonry sand.
The Gadsden County Road Department present-
ly operates four borrow pits in undifferentiated and
Citronelle Formation sediments (see Table 2).
These sands and clayey sands are utilized as road
base and fill by the county.
The abundance of sand and gravel within
Gadsden County makes impure construction and
fill grade sand-mining potential relatively high. Due
to the lack of demand, however, development of
this industry on a large-scale basis remains unlikely.

Phosphate

Phosphatic sand and granules occur in most of
the Hawthom Group sediments and in portions of
the Chattahoochee Formation in Gadsden County.
Some phosphatic material also occurs as reworked
Miocene sediments in Plio-Pleistocene deposits.
Analysis of well cuttings from Gadsden County
reveals that phosphate concentrations are general-
ly less than 10 percent in sediments throughout the
county. Phosphate exploration samples taken by
mining companies in nearby Leon and Wakulla
Counties showed a maximum phosphorite (P20s)
concentration of only 5.45 percent (Patterson et al.,

1986). Since modern phosphate mining requires a
minimum P205 content of 28 percent (Cathcart and
Patterson, 1983), commercial phosphate potential
for Gadsden County and the Big Bend Area as a
whole is low.

Petroleum

The current production of oil in Florida occurs
from Mesozoic age sediments in two major areas
of Florida. In south Florida, a number of fields are
situated along the Sunniland Trend, and produce
from the Lower Cretaceous Sunniland Formation;
in northwestern Florida, a series of fields in northem
Santa Rosa County produce oil from the Jurassic
Smackover and Norphlet Formations (Applegate
and Uoyd, 1985).
Various companies have drilled a total of nine oil
test wells in Gadsden County, ranging in depth from
1,750 feet below land surface (bls) to 7,021 feet bis
(Figure 8). None of the wells encountered oil or
gas, and were all plugged and abandoned as dry
holes. Although none of the wells reached Jurassic
section, the position of Gadsden County updip of
the productive Smackover and Norphlet Formation
pinchouts precludes a high petroleum potential for
the area (Applegate et al., 1978).

Florida Geological Survey

Bulletin No. 62

REFERENCES

Akers, W. H., 1972, Planktonic foraminifera and biostratigraphy of some Neogene formations, northern Florida
and the Atlantic coastal plain: Tulane Studies in Geology and Paleontology, v. 9, p. 1-139.

Applegate, A. V., Pontigo, F. A., Jr., and Rooke, J. H., 1978, Jurassic Smackover oil prospects in the
Apalachicola Embayment: Oil and Gas Journal, v. 76, no. 4, p. 80-84.

and Uoyd, J. M., 1985, Summary of Florida petroleum production and exploration, onshore
and offshore, through 1984: Florida Bureau of Geology Information Circular no. 101, 69 p.

Applin, E. R., 1955, A biofacies of Woodbine Age in southeastern Gulf Coast region: U. S. Geological Survey
Professional Paper 264-1, p. 187-197.

S1964, Some Middle Eocene, Lower Eocene, and Paleocene foraminiferal faunas from west
Florida: Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, Contributions, v. 15, pt. 2, p. 45-72.

Applin, P. L., 1951, Preliminary report on buried pre-Mesozoic rocks in Florida and adjacent states: U. S.
Geological Survey Circular 91, 28 p.

and Applin, E. R., 1944, Regional subsurface stratigraphy and structure of Florida and southern
Georgia: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 28, no. 12, p. 1673-1753.

1947, Regional subsurface stratigraphy, structure, and correlation of Middle Cretaceous rocks
in Alabama, Georgia, and north Florida: U. S. Geological Survey Oil and Gas Investigations Preliminary
Chart 26.

Arthur, J., 1988, Petrogenesis of Early Mesozoic Tholeiite in the Florida basement and an overview of Florida
basement geology: Florida Geological Survey Report of Investigations no. 97, 39 p.

Banks, J. E., and Hunter, M. E., 1973, Post-Tampa, pre-Chipola sediments exposed in Liberty, Gadsden, Leon
and Wakulla Counties, Florida: Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions, v. 25, p.
122-142.

Barnett, R. S., 1975, Basement structure of Florida and its tectonic implications: Gulf Coast Association of
Geological Societies Transactions, v. 25, p. 122-142.

Barr, G. L., 1987, Potentiometric surface of the upper Floridan aquifer in Florida, May, 1985: Florida Geological
Survey Map Series no. 119.

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1898, A table of North American Tertiary horizons, correlated with one another and with those
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1988, A revision of the lithostratigraphic units of the coastal plain of Georgia: Georgia
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1950, Pleistocene shorelines in Florida and Georgia: U.S. Geological Survey Professional
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and Clapp, F. G., 1909, A preliminary report on the geology of Florida with special reference to
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Bulletin No. 62

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Florida Geological Survey

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	Front Cover
	Title Page
	Front Matter
	Table of Contents
	Acknowledgement
	Main
	Back Cover

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