Sinkhole risk in Buena Vista 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%

What this means before you buy

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 2 of Buena Vista County's 575 square miles on soluble rock. With about 20,816 residents (36 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.

Worth reading for this county: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Buena Vista County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Knox County, NE, about 140 miles west. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Clay County, IA 23 mi north · 0% at surface
Pocahontas County, IA 24 mi east · 0% at surface
Sac County, IA 25 mi south · 0% at surface
Cherokee County, IA 25 mi west · 0% at surface
Ida County, IA 31 mi southwest · 0% at surface
Palo Alto County, IA 33 mi northeast · 0% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Kinderhook Series (limestone), Early Mississippian in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of Iowa

Buena Vista County ranks 23 of 99 in Iowa for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.