The Riverhouse Palmetto Live Cam

The Geological Origins

Beneath the placid surface of the Manatee River lies a story that begins in the late Pleistocene epoch, when shifting shorelines and fluctuating sea levels sculpted the ancient carbonate platforms of what is now Florida’s Gulf Coast. The river occupies a drowned karst valley, carved into Ocala Limestone—a formation composed largely of ooid-rich grainstones. Over successive glacial cycles, marine transgressions and regressions deposited layers of quartz sand and shell hash, creating a substratum that today underpins the river’s meandering course.