Why go
A spring or sinkhole offers a view into the structure beneath the peninsula. Understanding limestone dissolution helps connect these features with groundwater rather than treating each as an isolated curiosity. Ancient sea levels also explain sandy soils and a coastline that has repeatedly changed, giving geological meaning to an apparently simple lowland landscape.
The full story
Florida rests on a broad geological platform whose exposed portion forms the peninsula. Much of its upper structure consists of porous limestone. Water moving through and dissolving that rock creates karst: a landscape of cavities, underground passages and sinkholes. Springs mark places where groundwater reaches the surface. Sandy soils above the limestone record ancient shorelines laid down as sea levels rose and fell over long periods. During the last glacial period, lower seas exposed a much wider peninsula, and its climate was drier. Today's outline is therefore one stage in a much longer sequence of land emerging and being submerged. Bone Valley contains important phosphate deposits, another part of Florida's geological history and its use of natural resources. The state lies far from active tectonic plate boundaries, so mountain building and volcanic activity do not dominate the visible landscape. Water working through rock provides the more revealing explanation for many of its distinctive natural features.