SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Chenango County, NY: 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 5 of Chenango County's 893 square miles on soluble rock. With about 45,776 residents (51 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 315 map points about 1.7 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Read next: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Chenango County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Union County, PA, about 129 miles southwest. 3 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Tully Limestone (limestone), Middle Devonian in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

The county also lies over the Michigan Basin; Ohio Basin; Appalachian 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 New York

Chenango County ranks 14 of 62 in New York for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.