Miami’s Atlantic Coastal Ridge

More Miami like weather expected here this PM.

I saw this interesting book review titled Miami Vise in the print edition of the New York Times today. The book, Disposable Cities by Mario Ariza is “insightful and richly detailed.”

Having family in the area I was most interested in this from the Review: “Miami’s only slab of high ground, the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, not surprisingly has become contested territory. ” This put me on a search for the Atlantic Ridge and whether our connections were on it!

Turns out this map from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, points out the Ridge boundaries.

I overlayed a Google Map with the address I was interested in highlighted and found the home (green dot and arrow) right on the Ridge which the dark gray areas on this map show!

A sigh of relief I guess but its horrendous for so many in the low lands there. It seems that the ridge can be 30 feet above sea level. Miami’s elevation above sea level is 6 feet 7 inches. !!!!

The Geological Society of America’s Earth Cache offers a site and outing that describes this Atlantic Coastal Ridge as follows, “…The Ridge The Atlantic Coastal Ridge … was formed as longshore currents pushed ooids up into a long ridge. Ooids are small (2 mm in diameter), spheroidal, coated (layered) sedimentary grains, usually composed of sand and calcium carbonate. The ooids later cemented into the multi-layered sedimentary rock known as Miami Oolite (Miami Limestone)…. The Cocoplum Area, where this Earthcache is located along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, can be as much as 30 feet above sea-level. …”