Sinkhole risk in Berrien County, GA: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock: 100%
At or near the surface: 3%
Buried under cover: 97%

The next step for one property

Check the parcel against your state survey sinkhole map, and ask for an inspection if cracks, depressions or sticking doors show up.

That works out to roughly 453 of Berrien County's 453 square miles on soluble rock, 13 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 18,666 residents (41 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 241 map points about 1.4 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and why the 97% under cover still counts.

Counties around Berrien County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Crisp County, GA, about 54 miles northwest. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Cook County, GA 15 mi southwest · 16% at surface
Lanier County, GA 20 mi southeast · under 1% at surface
Atkinson County, GA 21 mi east · 0% at surface
Tift County, GA 21 mi northwest · 5% at surface
Irwin County, GA 22 mi north · 0% at surface
Coffee County, GA 29 mi northeast · 0% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the "Hawthorn Formation" (sand), Miocene in age, covering about 97% of the county. Next is the "Hawthorn Formation" at 3%.

The county also lies over the Floridan shelf, a deep salt or gypsum basin. Deep beds rarely cause surface collapse on their own, but wells and mining into them have.

Against the rest of Georgia

Berrien County ranks 58 of 159 in Georgia for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 60% of US counties on that measure.