Plymouth Harbor Live Cam
A 60 unit senior care community located within the St. Armands area of Sarasota
The Geological Foundations
Plymouth Harbor rests upon a dynamic confluence of carbonate sediments and siliciclastic materials shaped over millennia by the ebb and flow of Sarasota Bay’s currents. Underneath its deep-water moorings lies a thin veneer of quartz sand that overlies a Pleistocene-era limestone substrate. The harbor’s bathymetry reveals channels carved by tidal prisms, exhibiting depths ranging from 5 to 15 feet below mean low water. These channels were deepened through periodic dredging operations to maintain navigability for pleasure craft and small commercial vessels, ensuring that siltation rates influenced by seasonal storm surges are kept in check by modern hydraulic dredge technologies.
On a microscopic scale, the sediments contain fragments of foraminifera and molluscan shells, contributing to the light-colored sand that lines much of the surrounding shoreline. This biogenic composition not only offers insight into the ancient marine ecosystem that once thrived here but also influences the water’s clarity, as finer carbonate particles remain suspended longer, casting the bay in an iridescent turquoise hue.
