The Santa Fe River is peppered with beautiful clear blue springs on either side of the river. The porous karst also swallows and pushes several mid-river springs, descriptively called boils.
This particular boil situated between 27 bridge and Poe Springs appears to be Ala930971 (Alachua). According to this interactive map on Florida Springs Institute, it is a 2nd magnitude spring in Alachua County in the Santa Fe River basin.
Swallets or ‘sucks’ have the opposite affect. The river is pulled down into these, acting like a sink drain. Alligator Swallet being a prime example. The interconnected channels between swallets and springs resembles a Chutes and Ladders game with water getting pulled down then rising back up as a boil or spring.
All this up and down activity is pronounced along the Cody Scarp; the shoreline of our ancient sea. This is the seashore which eroded the surface soils down to bare rock, exposing the aquifer through our springs.
OSFR President Joanne Tremblay
joanne.tremblay@oursantaferiver.org
“Giving Our River A Voice”
