Crashing on Coquina

by Jessica Brown

Title

Crashing on Coquina

Artist

Jessica Brown

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Although the formal gardens are the centerpiece of this park, Washington Oaks is also famous for the unique shoreline of coquina rock formations that line its Atlantic beach. Nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Matanzas River, this property was once owned by a distant relative of President George Washington. The gardens were established by Louise and Owen Young who purchased the land in 1936 and built a winter retirement home. They named it Washington Oaks and, in 1965, donated most of the property to the State. The gardens make remarkable use of native and exotic species, from azaleas and camellias to the exquisite bird of paradise, sheltered within a picturesque oak hammock. Visitors can picnic and fish from either the beach or the seawall along the Matanzas River. A number of short trails provide opportunities for hiking and bicycling. Visitors can learn about the park's natural and cultural resources in the visitor center. Located two miles south of Marineland on State Road A1A.

Source: http://www.floridastateparks.org/washingtonoaks/

Coquina (pron.: /koʊˈkiːnə/; Spanish: "cockle") is a sedimentary rock that is composed either wholly or almost entirely of the transported, abraded, and mechanically sorted fragments of the shells of either molluscs, trilobites, brachiopods, or other invertebrates. For a sediment to be considered to be a coquina, the average size of the particles composing it should be 2 mm or greater in size. Coquina can vary in hardness from poorly to moderately-cemented. The term "coquina" is derived from the Spanish word for cockleshells or shellfish. Incompletely consolidated and poorly cemented coquinas are considered grainstones in the Dunham classification system for carbonate sedimentary rocks. Well-cemented coquinas are classified as biosparites according to the Folk classification of sedimentary rocks.

Coquinas accumulate in high-energy marine and lacustrine environments where currents and waves result in the vigorous winnowing, abrasion, fracturing, and sorting of the shells, which compose them. As a result, they typically exhibit well-developed bedding or cross-bedding, close packing, and good orientation of the shell fragments composing them. The high-energy marine or lacustrine associated with coquinas include beaches, shallow submarine raised banks, swift tidal channels, and barrier bars.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coquina

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April 3rd, 2013

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