home sweet home!
According to geologists, The Bahamas began with the formation of the Atlantic Ocean, around 200- 150 million years ago. Borehole samples across the archipelago revealed volcanic debris, limestone, and marine shales dating back to the early Jurassic era.
An interesting feature about The Bahamas’ geology is that the sediments found at depths of 17,000 ft are almost identical to sediments being formed today. This indicates that for millennia, the geographic environmental conditions of The Bahamas have remained stable. The Bahamas also shares its geological history with Florida, Northern Cuba, Turks and Caicos (TCI) and the Blake Plateau. In fact, The Bahamas, Florida, TCI, Northern Cuba, and the Blake Plateau were all connected and formed a vast marine plain sprinkled with islands.
Then, about 80 million years ago, environmental changes eventually led to the separation of Cuba, Florida, and The Bahamas as well as the drowning of the Blake Plateau, and the formation of troughs and channels separating the little and Great Bahama banks. It also led to the southern Bahama islands and TCI being broken up into individual island bank systems.
Limestone, primarily composed of calcium carbonate, can be generated through various processes. Biologically, organisms extract calcium carbonate from water, chemically, it can precipitate directly from water, and evaporatively, it accumulates after water dissolution, forming structures such as stalactites and stalagmites.
Cays in the Exuma Archipelago
A cay in the Exuma Archipelago
The age of the surface limestone rocks varies with location. For example, rock sediments found in the Goulding Cay area in North Eleuthera are believed to be between 524,000 and 474,000 years old. Mayaguana has the oldest observed subaerial sediments in The Bahamas, dating back to the Miocene epoch!
Although all of The Bahama islands are made of limestone, they differ in types based on the energy of the depositional environment. Muddy deposits indicate low energy and sandy deposits indicate high energy. Limestone is also dependent on the characteristic components such as lime mud, ooids, pellets, or particles formed by shell and corals.
While The Bahamas is not the only place on earth with limestone, we have some of the youngest and purest Calcium carbonate deposits, making it of high economic value.
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resources
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Hearty, P.J. and Kaufman, D.S., 2000. Whole-rock aminostratigraphy and Quaternary sea-level history of the Bahamas. Quaternary Research, 54(2), pp.163-173.
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Sealey, N.E. 2006. Bahamian Landscapes: Third Edition-An introduction to the Geology and Physical Geography of The Bahamas. Media Enterprises Ltd.
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Young, R.N., 2013. Landscapes of The Bahamas and Their Unexplained Relationship to Sea Level Change. In Proceedings from the 3rd International Geography Symposium (pp. 270-84).
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