Sinkhole risk in Bracken County, KY: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 35%
At or near the surface: 33%
Buried under cover: 2%

What to do about a house in Bracken County

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 71 of Bracken County's 203 square miles on soluble rock, 67 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 8,497 residents (42 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 606 map points about 0.6 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Bracken County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Mason County, KY, about 17 miles east, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Robertson County, KY 12 mi south · 39% at surface
Pendleton County, KY 13 mi west · 9% at surface
Mason County, KY 17 mi east · 76% at surface
Harrison County, KY 20 mi southwest · 44% at surface
Brown County, OH 22 mi northeast · 9% at surface
Campbell County, KY 23 mi northwest · 26% at surface

What Bracken County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Ashlock Formation, Grant Lake and Calloway Creek Limestones, and Fairview Formation, undivided (limestone), Ordovician in age, covering about 31% of the county. Next is the Lexington Limestone at 2%.

Against the rest of Kentucky

Bracken County ranks 60 of 120 in Kentucky for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 81% of US counties on that measure.