Sinkhole risk in Clay County, NC: No soluble rock mapped
No soluble rock mapped
No soluble bedrock mapped.
- On soluble rock
- under 1%
- At or near the surface
- under 1%
- Buried under cover
- 0%
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 2 of Clay County's 215 square miles on soluble rock, 2 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 12,042 residents (56 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 262 map points about 0.9 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.
Read next: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.
Counties around Clay County
The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Blount County, TN, about 45 miles north. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.
- Towns County, GA 10 mi south · 0% at surface
- Cherokee County, NC 18 mi west · 4% at surface
- Macon County, NC 20 mi east · 0% at surface
- Union County, GA 20 mi southwest · 0% at surface
- Graham County, NC 21 mi north · 0% at surface
- Rabun County, GA 23 mi southeast · 0% at surface
Which formation it is
The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Murphy Marble, Andrews Formation, and Nottely Quartzite, undivided (marble), Late Proterozoic in age, covering about under 1% of the county.
Against the rest of North Carolina
Clay County ranks 61 of 100 in North Carolina for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 54% of US counties on that measure.
- Duplin County 93%
- Jones County 92%
- Scotland County 91%
- Pender County 89%
- Robeson County 89%