Virginia Key: a few words about ancient coral reefs, hurricanes and the whims of man.

Virginia Key: where did it come from and where is it going?

With the transient nature of our community, some might think that Virginia Key and all things on it - the Miami Marine Stadium, the Rusty Pelican restaurant, the bridges and roads connecting it to the mainland and even the Miami Dade County Water and Sewage Station, - came wholly hatched, without regard to the ancient natural forces that forged the island into existence and still exert their influence.

So here are few words about its geologic past.

Virginia Key is a sedimentary barrier island set between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.

It was originally thought to be part of the Miami Beach/Key Biscayne land mass that was severed from the nearby Fisher Island and Key Biscayne. Over hundreds of years, hurricanes have opened the Bear Cut and Norris Cut channels.

The island’s sandy overlay rests on an ancient coral reef that lived 100,000 years ago when water levels were 25 to 30 feet higher than today. (Today, that coral rock reef meets the surface on Solider Key, the first of the Florida Keys.)

On Virginia Key, as the water receded, the coral reef became overladen with sand brought by currents from the north. Virginia Key and Key Biscayne to the south are formed of quartz sand brought by wave action and deposits from southward moving currents.

The island’s elevation increases three to four feet to create the beach dunes. Inland, Virginia Key’s coastal hammock rises six to seven feet above sea level. The variety of plants and animal communities on Virginia Key is directly related to changes in elevation and can be seen in the different ecosystems found within Virginia Key.

Virginia Key’s size and shape have been significantly altered by storm surges, land fills and shoreline development, including, of course, the creation of the Miami Marine Stadium basin lagoon.

As a relatively young island (in the U.S. Coast Survey of 1849, F.G. Gerdes stated it had only existed "ten or twelve" years ---after Florida became a U.S. Territory in 1821), it is considered a “mobile structure,” subject to the forces of nature and, of course, the whims of man.

Other sources for more info:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/biscayne_bay_bibliography.pdf
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/biscayne/info.htm
http://www.keyshistory.org/keysgeology.html