SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Boone County, IA: 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%

The next step for one property

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 5 of Boone County's 570 square miles on soluble rock. With about 26,729 residents (47 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 391 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Boone County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Clayton County, IA, about 144 miles northeast. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Osage Series (dolostone (dolomite)), Early Mississippian in age, covering about under 1% of the county. Next is the Meramec Series at under 1%.

The county also lies over the Forest City Basin, 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 Iowa

Boone County ranks 20 of 99 in Iowa for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.