NewsTracker Answers for week of June 28, 2021

Q: A 12-story seaside condominium building suddenly collapsed at about 2 a.m. last Thursday, killing at least nine people and leaving more than 150 people unaccounted for as rescue crews searched the rubble days later. Where is Florida?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The cause of the collapse was unknown. But, there was plenty of speculation about what may have contributed to the disaster, including possible damage from rising seawater. With water on three sides most of Florida is a ...

A. Bight

B. Isthmus

C. Peninsula

D. Spit


C. A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water along the majority of its border while still being connected to a mainland from which it extends. Some of Florida’s coastal areas are being flooded more and more often by high tides – even on sunny days. Saltwater can cause erosion or damage structures by rusting steel beams or steel reinforcing rods inside concrete.


Q: The collapsed building was in Surfside, a town north of Miami Beach and across Biscayne Bay from the city of Miami. Miami is in what part of Florida?

A. Northeast

B. Southeast

C. Southwest

D. Northwest


B. The Miami metropolitan area in southeast Florida is the state’s most populous area, with more than 6 million people. The urbanized area – about 100 miles long and five miles wide – lies between the Everglades and the Atlantic Ocean.


Q: Surfside and Miami Beach are coastal resort cities built on ...

A. Barrier islands

B. Calderas

C. Escarpments

D. Palisades


A. Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that form parallel to a mainland coast. Miami Beach and Surfside were built on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. The area is an average of 4.4 feet above mean sea level and subject to tidal flooding, which has increased as climate change raises sea levels.


Q: Investigators will probe whether salt, humidity or factors wakened the building or if other problems such as a sinkhole-like collapse in the ground underneath the building led to the disaster. Florida has a history of sometimes deadly sinkholes. The peninsula sits on top of what type of porous rock?

A. Basalt

B. Carbonatite

C. Granite

D. Limestone


D. Florida’s limestone base dissolves relatively easily in rainwater, which becomes acidic as it seeps through the topsoil. The rock has become honeycombed with cavities and systems of underwater caves and springs, which supply most of the water used by residents. When a cavity becomes too big to support its ceiling, it suddenly gives way, collapsing the clay and sand above to leave a cavernous sinkhole at the surface.