MIAMI – A new study from the University of Miami shows that dozens of luxury beachfront condos and hotels along Florida’s southeast coast are sinking into the ground at an unexpected rate.

The study identified a total of 35 buildings in Miami Beach that sank by up to seven centimeters between 2016 and 2023.

The 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 buildings in northern and central Sunny Isles are affected, according to the study.

“Almost all of the buildings on the coast itself are sinking,” Falk Amelung, a geophysicist at the University of Miami and lead author of the study, told the Miami Herald. “That’s a lot.”

The study data also shows signs that coastal areas in downtown Miami and 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 sea level rise caused by greenhouse gas emissions is eroding the limestone on which South Florida is built?

“It’s probably a much bigger problem than we know,” Paul Chinowsky, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the Herald.

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