Sinkhole risk in Citrus County, FL: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 96%
At or near the surface: 48%
Buried under cover: 48%

What to do about a house in Citrus County

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

Standard Florida homeowners policies cover only catastrophic ground cover collapse; full sinkhole coverage is a separately priced option insurers must offer.

That works out to roughly 558 of Citrus County's 582 square miles on soluble rock, 281 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 170,174 residents (292 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 288 map points about 1.4 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Citrus County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Levy County, FL, about 32 miles northwest, 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.

Hernando County, FL 21 mi south · 39% at surface
Levy County, FL 32 mi northwest · 67% at surface
Sumter County, FL 33 mi east · 59% at surface
Pasco County, FL 38 mi south · 18% at surface
Marion County, FL 41 mi northeast · 46% at surface
Lake County, FL 54 mi east · under 1% at surface

What Citrus County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Ocala Limestone (limestone), Eocene in age, covering about 89% of the county. Next is the Suwannee Limestone at 4%.

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 Florida

Citrus County ranks 27 of 67 in Florida for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 87% of US counties on that measure.