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Hydrogeology of Southeastern Florida

Hydrostratigraphy

The hydrostratigraphy of southeastern Florida is characterized by the shallow surficial aquifer system and the deeper Floridan aquifer system. The work of Parker and others (1955) and Kohout (1960a) suggests that the ground water discharging to Biscayne Bay originates from the Biscayne aquifer, which is part of the surficial aquifer system. This description of the hydrogeologic framework, therefore, focuses on the Biscayne aquifer.

The highly permeable Biscayne aquifer principally consists of porous limestone that ranges in age from Pliocene to Pleistocene. The vertical extent of the Biscayne aquifer does not directly correlate with geologic contacts (fig. 3). Instead, the Biscayne aquifer is defined by hydrogeologic properties. Fish (1988, p. 20) defines the Biscayne aquifer as:

"That part of the surficial aquifer system in southeastern Florida comprised (from land surface downward) of the Pamlico Sand, Miami Oolite [Limestone], Anastasia Formation, Key Largo Limestone, and Fort Thompson Formation all of Pleistocene age, and contiguous highly permeable beds of the Tamiami Formation of Pliocene age, where at least 10 ft [3.05 m] of the section is highly permeable--a horizontal hydraulic conductivity of about 1,000 ft/d [305 m/d] or more."

The properties and extent of the Biscayne aquifer in Miami-Dade County are presented in a report by Fish and Stewart (1991). Based on the results from numerous lithologic cores, Fish and Stewart (1991) developed a contour map of the base of the Biscayne aquifer. The map illustrates the three-dimensional extent of the aquifer in Miami-Dade County and shows the aquifer thinning toward the west.