Little Salt Spring

Little Salt Spring is a feature of the karst topography of Florida, specifically an example of a sinkhole. It is classified as a third magnitude spring.{{cite journal |author1=Van Ee, NJ |author2=Riera-Gomez, E Rick |title=Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotopes Suggest Two Sources for Little Salt Spring |year=2009 |journal=In: Pollock NW, ed. Diving for Science 2009. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences 28th Symposium. Dauphin Island, AL |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/10222 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130615170705/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/10222 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 15, 2013 |accessdate=2013-05-15 }} The numerous deep vents at the bottom of the sinkhole feed oxygen-depleted groundwater into it, producing an anoxic environment below a depth of about {{convert|5|m|ft|1|abbr=on}}. This fosters the preservation of Paleo-Indian and early Archaic artifacts and ecofacts, as well as fossil bones of the extinct megafauna once found in Florida.{{cite web|url=http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/0,1770,2593-1;39289-3,00.html |title=Little Salt Spring Reveals More Florida History |date=July 6, 2005 |accessdate=2009-11-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060922003500/http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/0%2C1770%2C2593-1%3B39289-3%2C00.html |archivedate=September 22, 2006 }}{{cite journal|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/203/4381/609|title=Little Salt Spring, Florida: A Unique Underwater Site|journal=Science|first=C. J.|last=Clausen|author2= A. D. Cohen|author3=Cesare Emiliani|author4=J. A. Holman|author5= J. J. Stipp|volume=203|issue=4381|pages=609–614|doi=10.1126/science.203.4381.609|date=16 February 1979|accessdate=2010-02-05|pmid=17813360|bibcode=1979Sci...203..609C |s2cid=39027766 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal|title=Holocene paleohydrology of Little Salt Spring, Florida, based on ostracod assemblages and stable isotopes|first=Carlos A. |last=Alvarez Zarikiana|author2=Peter K. Swart|author3=John A. Gifford|author4=Patricia L. Blackwelder|doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.01.023|journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology|date=5 August 2005|volume=225|issue=1–4|pages=134–156|bibcode=2005PPP...225..134A }}{{dead link|date=March 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

Little Salt Spring was considered a shallow freshwater pond, but in 1959 SCUBA divers William Royal and Eugenie Clark discovered that it was a true sinkhole extending downward over {{convert|200|ft|m|0|abbr=on}},{{Cite book |last=Royal |first=William R. |title=The man who rode sharks |last2=Burgess |first2=Robert Forrest |date=1978 |publisher=Dodd, Mead |isbn=978-0-396-07537-0 |location=New York}} similar to the cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula (another karst region). The actual depth of the surface pond is {{convert|40|ft|1|spell=in}} with a central shaft dropping vertically to an inverted cone with a maximum determined depth at the outer edges of {{convert|245|ft|m}}. There are ledges around the wall of the cenote at {{convert|16|and|27|m|ft|0|abbr=off|sp=us}} below the present water level.

The water level in the spring has varied over time. Twelve to thirteen thousand years ago the ocean level was about 100 meters (more than 300 feet) lower than at present, drawing down the water table in Florida, and the water level in Little Salt Spring was {{convert|27|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} lower than at present. The basin around the spring and a slough extending away from it are filled with moist, soft peat.

On July 10, 1979, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19801124&id=sUk1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=62cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5335,5446439|work=Sarasota Herald Tribune|title=Dial Hotline|date=November 24, 1980|page=54|accessdate=2010-02-06}} In 2013, the University of Miami began considering selling the site to Sarasota County Government, due to funding being cut towards maintaining the site and its facilities.{{cite web|last=Taylor |first=Josh |url=http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/south_newsroom/little-salt-spring-could-be-sold-to-sarasota-county/article_0948a0aa-ce29-11e2-b769-0019bb30f31a.html |title=Little Salt Spring could be sold to Sarasota County - Sarasota News | Mysuncoast.com and ABC 7: 7 South Newsroom |publisher=Mysuncoast.com |date=2013-06-05 |accessdate=2013-06-13}}

Hundreds of burials dating from 5,200 to 6,800 years ago have been found in the slough. As has happened in other wetland burials in Florida, such as at the Windover Archaeological Site, brain matter survived in many of the skulls. In the 1970s the overturned shell of an extinct giant land tortoise was found on the {{convert|27|m|ft|adj=on|sp=us}} ledge. A wooden stake had been driven between the carapace and the plastron, and there is evidence of a fire under the tortoise. It appears that the tortoise had been cooked in its shell. The radiocarbon date for the wooden stake was 12,030 years ago; a bone from the tortoise was dated to 13,450 years ago. Large numbers of human bones have been recovered from the spring, but were not collected under controlled conditions.{{Cite book|last=Purdy|first=Barbara A.|title=Florida's People During the Last Ice Age|publisher=University Press of Florida|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8130-3204-7|location=Gainesville, Florida|pages=84–90}}

• List of sinkholes of the United States

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• [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/FL/Sarasota/state2.html Sarasota County listings] at [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com National Register of Historic Places]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070216142028/http://www.flheritage.com/facts/reports/places/index.cfm?fuseaction=ListAreas&county=Sarasota Sarasota County listings] at [http://www.flheritage.com Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs]
• [http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/groups/lss/ Little Salt Spring] at the Marine Affairs and Policy Division of Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami

{{Protected areas of Florida}}

{{University of Miami}}

{{Indigenous peoples of Pre-Columbian Florida}}

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Category:National Register of Historic Places in Sarasota County, Florida

Category:University of Miami

Category:Archaeological sites in Florida

Category:Sinkholes of Florida

Category:Bodies of water of Sarasota County, Florida

Category:Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida

Category:Underwater archaeological sites

Category:North Port, Florida