The Miami Rock Ridge is an oolitic, continuous outcrop of limestone, part of the Miami Formation, which formerly encompassed a large extent of southernmost South Florida; as part of an ecosystem it formed portions of the Everglades. The traditional base of the elevation, which rises 7 to 8.6 m (23 to 28 ft) above sea level, ranges from northern Miami-Dade County—the approximate latitude of North Miami Beach—southward to the upper Florida Keys and extends southwestward into Everglades National Park, creating a karst-dominated landscape.[1]
A series of tidal channels, dubbed transverse glades, formed within valleys in the ridge and served as conduits for freshwater from the Everglades, thereby modulating the estuarine environment of Biscayne Bay.[2] One of these glades enclosed the Miami River, a section of whose course featured a 6-foot-2.5-inch (1.892 m) waterfall and 450-foot-long (140 m) rapids until 1908, when it was progressively bypassed by the Miami Canal and partly dredged.[3][4] Being one of the few areas sited above pre-drainage sea level, the Miami Rock Ridge was heavily exploited for agriculture and real estate.[5][6]
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Meeder 2019
- "Pine Rocklands: A Disappearing Habitat". Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management. Miami-Dade County. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- Snyder, Herndon & Robertson Jr. 1990, pp. 234–5
- Trotta, Lauren. "Mountains of Miami". Biodiversity Institute. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
- Trotta et al. 2018
- ^ Meeder 2019.
- ^ Gaby 1993, p. 8.
- ^ Lodge 2010, pp. 175, 177–9.
- ^ Lodge 2010, pp. 174–80.
- ^ Snyder, Herndon & Robertson Jr. 1990, pp. 271–4.