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 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 the United ...

from the western end of the Florida Panhandle 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, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

(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 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 finally confirmed in ...

, 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 2/04/2011or perched coastline is a relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of marine origin,Pira ...

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'') ...

barrier island Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of 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 from ...

s, coastal swamps and marshes and drowned coastal karst ( 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 l ...

, Tates Hell Swamp, Lake Munson 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