Little Salt Spring

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name = Little Salt Spring
nrhp_type =


caption = Little Salt Spring
location = Sarasota County, Florida
nearest_city = North Port
built =
added = July 10, 1979
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
governing_body =

Little Salt Spring is an archaeological and paleontological site in southern Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located off U.S. Route 41 in the city of North Port. On July 10, 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Little Salt Spring is a feature of the karst topography of Florida, specifically an example of a sinkhole. The numerous deep vents at the bottom of the sinkhole feed oxygen-depleted groundwater into it, producing an anoxic environment below a depth of about convert|3|m|ft|abbr=on. This fosters the preservation of Paleo-Indian and early Archaic artifacts and ecofacts, as well as fossil bones of the extinct megafauna once found in Florida.

Originally it was thought that Little Salt Spring was a shallow freshwater pond, but in the 1950s SCUBA divers discovered that it was a true sinkhole extending downward over convert|200|ft|m|abbr=on, similar to the cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula (another karst region).

The site has been owned by the University of Miami since 1982 and is studied by Dr. John Gifford of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami.

References and external links

* [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/FL/Sarasota/state2.html Sarasota County listings] at [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com National Register of Historic Places]
* [http://www.flheritage.com/facts/reports/places/index.cfm?fuseaction=ListAreas&county=sarasota Sarasota County listings] at [http://www.flheritage.com Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs]
* [http://mafweb.rsmas.miami.edu/lss/index.html The Little Salt Spring Underwater Archaeology Project] at the Marine Affairs and Policy Division of RSMAS