SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Benson County, ND: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

On soluble rock
under 1%
At or near the surface
0%
Buried under cover
under 1%

What to do about a house in Benson County

No soluble bedrock is mapped here, so natural sinkholes are unlikely. Collapses from broken pipes or old mines are a separate risk.

That works out to roughly 10 of Benson County's 1,389 square miles on soluble rock. With about 5,756 residents (4 per square mile), much of the land is open, and the mapped rock may sit far from where people actually live. The figures come from 272 map points about 2.3 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Benson County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Boyd County, NE, about 359 miles south. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Niobrara and Carlile Formations, Undivided (limestone), Cretaceous in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of North Dakota

Benson County ranks 8 of 53 in North Dakota for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.