Rockhounding in Florida

Citrus County

Crystal River sits on the Nature Coast where the Eocene Crystal River Formation limestone hosts calcite and quartz crystal pockets, chalcedony-filled fossil molds, and chert, along with fossil echinoids and mollusks.

Calcite, Quartz, Chert, Fossils

Hernando County

The Brooksville area sits on the Ocala Uplift, where Eocene Ocala Limestone produces calcite crystal pockets and echinoid (sea biscuit) fossils, some hollow and lined with calcite as geodes.

Calcite, Echinoid Geode

Hillsborough County

The Tampa Bay area is the third of Florida's classic agatized coral regions, and the Hillsborough River drainage yields silicified corals and agate along with brain and finger coral fossils.

Brain Coral, Finger Coral, Agate

Sarasota County

Venice bills itself as the Shark Tooth Capital of the World, and the Sarasota County beaches around the Venice jetty sit above a Miocene to Pleistocene fossil layer that feeds fossil shark teeth onto the sand.

Fossilized Coral, Shark Teeth, Sponges, Manatee Bones

Charlotte County

Manasota Key at Englewood is the Charlotte County extension of the Venice shark tooth beaches, drawing fossil teeth and fossil coral from the same offshore Miocene bone bed.

Fossilized Coral, Shark Teeth, Sponges, Manatee Bones

Pinellas County

The causeway and beaches near Dunedin and Honeymoon Island are cited as one of the best remaining public sources of agatized coral and chalcedony in the Tampa Bay region.

Chalcedony

Hamilton County

The Suwannee River bed and banks downstream of White Springs are one of the three classic sources of Florida's state stone, agatized coral, where silica has replaced fossil coral to form chalcedony that keeps the original coral structure.

Agatized Coral

Gadsden County

Gadsden County in the eastern Panhandle is one of Florida's better sources of silicified (petrified) wood, which weathers out as tan to brown grain-patterned fragments from silica-rich Tertiary sediments.

Silicified Wood, Fossils

Jackson County

Jackson County in the western Panhandle exposes the Oligocene Marianna Limestone and its Marianna chert, a highly fossiliferous unit carrying echinoids, mollusks, and bryozoans along the Chipola River near Marianna and Cottondale.

Chert

DeSoto County

The Peace River was a shark nursery during the Miocene and later ran through Ice Age Florida, so its gravel bars carry fossil shark teeth, including large megalodon teeth, alongside mammoth, mastodon, and other Pleistocene mammal fossils.

Shark Teeth, Megalodon Teeth, Fossils, Mammoth