Much of the Miami Beach skyline, on ground that’s just a few feet above sea level, is sinking. But some of the iconic skyscrapers there are sinking at different rates and much of the subsidence is due to non-stop building construction on the barrier island, says a study led by professors from Florida and German universities.
“We attribute the observed subsidence to load-induced, prolonged creep deformation of the sandy layers within the limestone, which is accelerated, if not instigated, by construction activities,” reads the abstract for a study published in Earth and Space Science, a peer-reviewed academic journal.
The study, authored in part by University of Miami professors Farzaneh Aziz Zanjani and Falk Amelung, was published in late 2024. But it has gained new attention after it was was highlighted in recent news articles in the Miami Herald and other publications.
The authors of the study used satellite-based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, known as InSAR, to document the sink rate for 35 Miami Beach buildings over the last decade. The findings show that some structures have sunk into the ancient limestone and sand beneath them at a rate of about 2 centimeters from 2016 to 2023. But others, on Sunny Isles Beach and Surfside, have dropped more than 8 centimeters, or about three inches, raising new concerns for insurance underwriters and claims handlers…