Deposition of a muddy sediment drift in the southern Straits of Florida during the late Quaternary

Bottom currents associated with the Florida Current in large part control deposition of muddy, biogenic sediments in the constricted deep-sea passage of the southern Straits of Florida. The unit is similar to muddy contourite drifts based on sediment structures, changing thickness of biostratigraphic zones, and distribution of biogenic sands in twenty piston cores. Current activity affected deposition more during the last glacial period than during the present and penultimate interglacial periods of the last 127,000 years based on the presence of an erosional regional unconformity that ended in the upper part of the glacial interval and on the change in pattern of silt and clay accumulation rates in the glacial interval relative to interglacial intervals.