Submarine karst belt rimming the continental slope in the Straits of Florida

Abstract

Nine submarine sinkholes have been surveyed and mapped with side-looking sonar and echo-sounder profiles in the Straits of Florida. These structures are irregularly distributed across the surface of the South Florida Margin, forming a discontinuous belt along the edge of the slope. The sinkholes occur in water depths too great to have ever been exposed above sea level, and some are several times larger than any known subaerial sinkholes in North America. Because most karst morphologies are the product of groundwater circulation, the distribution of submarine sinkholes in the Florida Straits may be directly related to the paleohydrology of the South Florida Platform.