Albert C. Hine Eugene A. Shinn Sarah E. Kruse Richard Z. Poore Todd D. Hickey 2010 <p id="ID0EF" class="first">Pleistocene carbonates of south Florida and islands of the Florida Keys are currently divided into five marine sequences designated, from oldest to youngest, the Q1–Q5 units. The units include a mosaic of freshwater and shallow marine deposits that accumulated on the Florida platform during high sea-level stands. The units are separated by regional-scale subaerial-exposure surfaces that formed during glacioeustatic lowstands. Analyses of cores recovered at Grossman Ridge Rock Reef and Joe Ree Rock Reef in the Florida Everglades reveal additional subaerial-exposure surfaces that are used to delineate subdivisions within units Q1 (Q1a–Q1b), Q2 (Q2a–Q2d), and Q4 (Q4a–Q4b). Units Q1–Q5 preserve evidence of at least 10 separate sea-level highstands, rather than 5 as indicated by previous studies.</p><p id="ID0EG">Compilation of available uranium-series dates on corals recovered from the Florida Keys indicates that the Q4 unit accreted during sea-level maxima associated with marine oxygen-isotope Stage 9 (Q4a) and isotope Stage 7 (Q4b). The Q5 unit formed during isotope Stage 5. No reliable dates are available for units Q1–Q3. We infer that unit Q3 was formed during the extended sea-level highstand of isotope Stage 11 and that units Q2 and Q1 predate isotope Stage 11.</p> application/pdf 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-09-00052.1 en Coastal Education & Research Foundation Pleistocene carbonate stratigraphy of South Florida: Evidence for high-frequency sea-level cyclicity article