The Gulf Coastal Lowlands is a geomorphological province in Florida. The province extends along the coast of the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

from the western end of the

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...

to near Ft. Myers in southern Florida. The average width of the province is 40 km. While much of the province is less than 15 m above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

(msl), it rises to about above msl along its inland side. It is the largest geomorphological province in Florida. Due to its low elevation, the province was at sea level during warmer periods of the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, and features such as ancient dunes and sand bars are found far inland.

Marine terrace A raised beach, coastal terrace,Pinter, N (2010): 'Coastal Terraces, Sealevel, and Active Tectonics' (educational exercise), from 2/04/2011/ref> or perched coastline is a relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of marine origin,P ...

s found in the Gulf Coastal Lowlands include the Silver Bluff terrace, above mean sea level (msl), Pamlico terrace, above msl, Talbot terrace to above msl, Penholoway terrace, above msl, and Wicomico terrace, above msl. The Gulf Coastal Lowlands include

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

barrier island Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...

s, coastal swamps and marshes and drowned coastal

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

( Big Bend Coast) along the coast. Features of the Gulf Coastal Lowlands include the Desoto Plain, Wakulla Hills,

Woodville Karst Plain The Woodville Karst Plain is a karst area that runs from Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico separated by the Cody Scarp. This karst plain includes numerous first magnitude springs, including Wakulla- Leon Sinks Cave System, the lon ...

, Tates Hell Swamp,

Lake Munson Lake Munson is a shallow reservoir on the southeast side of Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida. Historically known as Munson's Mill Pond as early as the 1840s, in 1950 a permanent dam was constructed. From 1934 to 1984, Lake Munson received outf ...

Hills, Beacon Slope, Fountain Slope and Greenhead Slope.

Notes

References

* *{{cite book, last=Kendrick, first=David C., title=First Floridians and Last Mastodons: The Page-Ladson Site in the Aucilla River, year=2006, publisher=Springer, location=Dordrecht, The Netherlands, isbn=978-1-4020-4325-3, pages=49–82, editor=S. David Webb, chapter=Stratigraphy and Sedimentation Geology of Florida