Wakulla Springs

Wakulla Springs is located 14 miles (22 km) south of Tallahassee, Florida and 5 miles (8 km) east of Crawfordville in Wakulla County, Florida at the crossroads of State Road 61 and State Road 267. It is protected in the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park.

Description

Wakulla cave is a branching flow-dominated cave that has developed in the Floridan Aquifer under the Woodville Karst Plain of north Florida.

It is classified as a first magnitude spring and is the longest and deepest known submerged freshwater cave system in the world. Wakulla Springs is a major exposure point for the Floridan Aquifer. The spring forms the Wakulla River which flows nine miles to the southeast where it joins the St. Mark's River. After a short five miles the St. Mark's empties into the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachee Bay.

History and discovery

Scientific interest in the spring began in 1850, when Sarah Smith reported seeing the bones of an ancient mastodon on the bottom. Since that time, scientists have identified the remains of at least nine other extinct Ice Age mammals, deposited as far as 1,200 feet (360 m) back into a cave. Today, at a depth of about 190 feet, the fossilized remains of mastodons are in full view along with other fossils.

Prehistoric humans

Upper Paleolithic - Paleoindians lived at or near the spring over 12,000 years and were descendants of people who crossed into North America from eastern Asia during the Pleistocene epoch. Clovis spear points have been found at Wakulla Springs.

Prehistoric animal life

*Mastodon ("Mammut americanum") found at Wakulla.
*Ice Age camel ("Camelops hesternus")
*Giant ground sloth ("Eremotherium laurillardi")
*Saber-toothed Tiger ("Smilodon") found at Wakulla.
*Columbian Mammoth ("Mammutus columbi")
*Ancient Bison ("Bison antiquus")
*Equus ("Equus scotti") found near Wakulla.
*Short-faced bear ("Arctodus simus")
*Miocene Dugong ("Metaxytherium crataegense") found near Wakulla.
*American lion ("Panthera leo atrox") found in Florida.

Animal life today

Found in and around Wakulla Springs are manatees, white-tailed deer, otters, alligators, Suwannee cooters, snapping turtles, softshell turtles, limpkin, purple gallinules, herons, egrets, bald eagles, anhingas, ospreys, Common Moorhens, wood ducks, black vultures and turkey vultures.

Hydrology

Underwater cave system

Wakulla cave consists of a dendritic network of conduits of which 12 miles (19,335 m) have been surveyed and mapped. The conduits are characterized as long tubes with diameter and depth being consistent (300ft or 90m depth); however, joining tubes can be divided by larger chambers of varying geometries. The largest conduit trends south from the spring/cave entrance for over 3.8 miles (6.1 km). Four secondary conduits, including Leon Sinks intersect the main conduit. Most of these secondary conduits have been fully explored. On July 28, 2007, Woodville Karst Plain Project divers physically connected the Wakulla Springs and Leon Sinks cave systems establishing the Wakulla-Leon Sinks cave system with total explored and surveyed passageway exceeding 28 miles in length.

pecifics on flow rate

Flow rate of the spring is 200-300 million gallons of water a day. A record peak flow from the spring on April 11 1973 was measured at 14,324 gallons (54,226 liters) per second - equal to 1.2 billion gallons (4.542,494) cubic meters) per day. [ [http://research.gg.uwyo.edu/kincaid/Modeling/Wakulla/wakhydro.htm University of Wyoming: Wakulla Springs] ]

Wakulla Springs in film

were also filmed on location at Wakulla Springs. [ [http://www.wakullacounty.org/wakulla-30.htm Wakulla County.org] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.floridasprings.org/exploration/ Florida Springs]
* [http://tfn.net/springs/Springbook/FirstMagnitude.htm List of First Magnitude Springs]
* [http://www.elephant.se/mastodon.php The Mastadon]
* [http://www.elephant.se/mammoths.php The Mammoth]
* [http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/vertpaleo/aucilla11_1/milanich.htm Florida's Indians]
* [http://www.tallahassee.com/legacy/special/springs/ Tallahassee Democrat Online Special: Saving Our Springs]
* [http://www.wakullasprings.org/WideBand/WSPage1.htm Friends of Wakulla Springs State Park]