HUDSON GROTTO: A 175 YEAR RECORD OF COASTAL WEST FLORIDA ENVIRONMENTAL EVOLUTION

Hudson Grotto is a sinkhole in coastal north-western Pasco County, Florida and is a popular destination for divers in the Tampa Bay region because of its depth and accessibility. This geologic feature has been a landmark for several thousand years and is a natural sediment archive, which can provide insight into environmental changes that occurred in the past due to the low energy environment promoting the preservation of sediment stratigraphy. Sediment cores were extracted by divers and analyzed using gamma spectrometry, sedimentology, x-ray fluorescence and x-ray diffraction to determine changes in timing and stratigraphy. These changes can be correlated to specific events, such as tropical cyclones. Three event facies have been identified and correlated to several impactful cyclones that have occurred since 1848. This will provide a more robust environmental record extending beyond 1958, which is the limiting year to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tropical cyclone archives. This project will determine the feasibility of paleoclimate research using sinkhole sediments in Florida as well as determining the general geology and hydrology of Hudson Grotto. 

For more information contact: vrshonka@eckerd.edu

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