Florida Platform

On the gulf side the platform ends over 100 miles (160 km) to the west of the modern shoreline, where a massive cliff rises over 6,000 feet (1,800 m) from the 10,600 feet (3,200 m) depth of the gulf floor.

The western reaches of the platform just off Tampa were explored by the submersible DSV Alvin.

[1] Florida's igneous and sedimentary foundation separated from what is now the African Plate when the supercontinent Pangaea rifted apart in the middle Triassic and possibly early-middle Jurassic.

The oldest sediments that are exposed are Eocene carbonates found in the Avon Park Formation.

Most of the state of Florida is covered by Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene siliciclastic-bearing sediments deposited during sea-level fluctuations and filling in of the Gulf Trough beginning in the late Tertiary and Quaternary.