Trevor Lewis at Pacific Geoscience Centre made his laboratory available for the thermal conductivity measurements of the lithified core samples. Discussion with Andy Fisher at University of California, Santa Cruz, Peter Swart at University of Miami, and Earl Davis at Pacific Geoscience Centre was helpful in developing this manuscript. Kathy Schwehr at University of Houston assisted Nagihara in compiling the NOAA hydrographic data from the Straits of Florida. Funding for this work was made available by a grant from JOI U.S. Scientific Support Program.