ABSTRACT

An offshore area South of Alligator Harbor, Florida contains several linear offshore shoals separated by a number of relatively flat-floored "valleys". Eighty-six samples from this area were analyzed for texture by standard laboratory technique.

The simplest model of sediment distribution applicable is one of increasing grain size and decreasing sorting with increasing water depth. The correlation of this pattern and other lithologic attributes with a vertical stratigraphic section from an onshore boring suggests that the sampled area represents a subaerially eroded surface in which there has been only limited modification by marine processes during the most recent rise in sea level. This modification consists of movement of the finer fraction onto the shoals with minor return movement to some of the deeper channels. The deposition of finer sediments on these previous topographic highs may have accentuated the original (subaerial) relief.