Sinkhole risk in Clinch County, GA: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 100%
At or near the surface: 0%
Buried under cover: 100%

What to do about a house in Clinch 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 815 of Clinch County's 815 square miles on soluble rock. With about 6,871 residents (8 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 248 map points about 1.8 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and why the 100% under cover still counts.

Counties around Clinch County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Hamilton County, FL, about 33 miles southwest, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Echols County, GA 18 mi southwest · 7% at surface
Ware County, GA 19 mi northeast · 0% at surface
Lanier County, GA 23 mi west · under 1% at surface
Atkinson County, GA 28 mi north · 0% at surface
Hamilton County, FL 33 mi southwest · 88% at surface
Lowndes County, GA 34 mi west · 16% at surface

What Clinch County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the "Hawthorn Formation" (sand), Miocene in age, covering about 100% of the county.

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 Georgia

Clinch County ranks 88 of 159 in Georgia for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.