Lake Okeechobee Valley and the Everglades. The trough is underlain by clay deposits that compacted more than the limestone and sand deposits did along both coasts of peninsular Florida. Until about 6,000 years ago, the trough was dry land. As the sea level rose, the water table in Florida also rose and rainfall increased. From 6,000 to 4,000 years ago, wetlands formed building up peat deposits. Eventually the water flow into the area created a lake, drowning the wetlands. Along what is now the southern edge of the lake, the wetlands built up the layers of peat rapidly enough (reaching thick) to
Okeechobee Plain Okeechobee Plain The Okeechobee Plain is a major geologic feature of Florida formed during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs and named for Okeechobee County, Florida, United States. The Okeechobee Plain is a dry prairie or grassland The Okeechobee Plain is within the Kissimmee/Okeechobee Lowland established by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Lake Bioassessment/Regionalization Initiative. The Okeechobee Plain was created during the Pliocene and Pleistocene's wild climatic times through continuous depositing of sediments from rivers as the peninsula grew southward. During the Piacenzian (3.6—2.5 Ma) stage of the Pliocene the plain, was, for the most part, submerged and is referred