Blue Springs

Blue Springs

Blue Springs State Park is located 6 miles southwest of DeLand, near Orange City, Florida. The spring is home to many manatees that spend the winter months dining on aquatic plants in the temperate 72 °F water.

Blue Spring is a 1st magnitude spring and discharges roughly 1180 gallons per second, or 102 millions of gallons of water per day. Groundwater from Blue Spring emerges from a single vertical fissure. The limestone walls in the cave contain many fossilized echinoderms, like sea biscuits and sea urchins. The presence of these fossils indicates that this limestone, Ocala limestone, was laid down during the Eocene epoch (55 to 33 million years ago).

Blue Springs, despite its massive discharge, is home to a variety of stygobitic organisms, including a brand new genus of cave amphipod that is currently being described by Dr. John Holsinger at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.