USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

First Advisor

Catherine Wilkins, Ph.D.

Publisher

University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2024

Date Issued

May 2024

Abstract

The rise of sea level over the past 20,000 years has led to the submersion of nearly half of Florida’s original land mass, causing freshwater springs hypothesized to have been a gathering spot for prehistoric people to become submerged. As the water rose, humans lost touch with their ancestors’ ways of life and migratory patterns. In recent years, however, interests in the potential significant cultural, archeological, and paleontological resources at submerged spring sites on the West Florida Shelf have spiked among geo-archeologists, historical experts, biologists, and geologists.

The goal of the WF2305 research cruise aboard the R/V Western Flyer was to perform geophysical mapping of previously unidentified submerged springs dating from 10,000 cal BP at a maximum of 100 feet depth, with an aspiration to locate precontact archaeological sites and fill knowledge gaps about human history. WF2305 utilized side-scan sonar (SSS) and sub-bottom profiling (SBP) to successfully map the three target areas and identify a submerged spring in one survey area.

The results of the research cruise provided important insight into the current and past environment of the Big Bend area of the West Florida Shelf, including multiple SSS signatures demonstrating the heterogeneity of the area. The results emphasize the importance and advantages of mapping oceanic shelves to learn more about ancient environments and prehistoric populations. This research strengthens the public’s knowledge of our history and our home, opens doors to future collaboration with Florida’s Indigenous people, and allows scientists to further develop multidisciplinary characterization of the seafloor. Follow-up work on these survey areas is already being performed, specifically from follow-up cruise WF2306, through sediment cores, water samples, scuba, and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video and image characterization to characterize the modern environmental setting of the survey areas and learn more about their geological history.

Here we present the comparisons from the Hubbard spring site data to previously researched Florida springs. The data sets allow comparison of general physical characteristics, archeological components, and historical insight into Florida springs.

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Honors Program University of South Florida, St. Petersburg May 1, 2024.

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