Sinkhole risk in Bedford County, TN: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

Soluble rock at or near the surface across much of the county.

On soluble rock: 93%
At or near the surface: 93%
Buried under cover: 0%

What this means before you buy

Get a sinkhole or geotechnical inspection before buying, building or adding weight to a foundation.

That works out to roughly 439 of Bedford County's 474 square miles on soluble rock, 439 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 54,228 residents (114 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 302 map points about 1.3 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Bedford County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Cullman County, AL, about 98 miles south. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Moore County, TN 17 mi south · 65% at surface
Marshall County, TN 18 mi west · 94% at surface
Coffee County, TN 21 mi east · 74% at surface
Rutherford County, TN 23 mi north · 100% at surface
Lincoln County, TN 27 mi south · 62% at surface
Cannon County, TN 30 mi northeast · 63% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Nashville Group; Bigby-Cannon Limestone and Hermitage Formation (calcarenite), Ordovician in age, covering about 27% of the county. Next is the Stones River Group; Lebanon Limestone at 26%.

Against the rest of Tennessee

Bedford County ranks 9 of 95 in Tennessee for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 97% of US counties on that measure.