Just how fast is Miami sinking into the Atlantic Ocean?
MIAMI – A new study from the University of Miami shows dozens of luxury, beachfront condos and hotels, all along the southeast coast of Florida, are sinking into the ground at unexpected rates.
The study identified a total of 35 buildings in Miami Beach that have sunk by as much as three inches between 2016-2023.
Affected buildings include the iconic Surf Club Towers, Trump Tower III, Trump International Beach Resorts and the Ritz-Carlton Residence. In fact, nearly 70 percent of the buildings in northern and central Sunny Isles are affected, according to the study.
"Almost all the buildings at the coast itself, they're subsiding," Falk Amelung, a geophysicist at the University of Miami and the study's senior author, told the Miami Herald. "It's a lot."
The study data also shows signs that coastal lands in downtown Miami, Broward and Palm Beach counties are sinking.
Experts say this raises a host of questions about development on vulnerable barrier islands.
Could this be a sign that rising sea levels, spurred by greenhouse gas emissions, is eroding the limestone on which South Florida is built.
"It's probably a much larger problem than we know," Paul Chinowsky, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the Herald.