Sinkhole risk in Craven County, NC: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

Soluble rock at or near the surface across much of the county.

On soluble rock: 69%
At or near the surface: 69%
Buried under cover: 0%

What this means before you buy

Get a sinkhole or geotechnical inspection before buying, building or adding weight to a foundation.

That works out to roughly 486 of Craven County's 707 square miles on soluble rock, 486 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 104,167 residents (147 per square mile), homes are spread across towns and farmland, and a mapped unit may or may not reach the developed parts. The figures come from 417 map points about 1.3 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Craven County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Hyde County, NC, about 56 miles east. 3 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Jones County, NC 17 mi west · 92% at surface
Pamlico County, NC 24 mi east · 17% at surface
Beaufort County, NC 29 mi northeast · 41% at surface
Lenoir County, NC 32 mi west · 71% at surface
Onslow County, NC 34 mi southwest · 65% at surface
Carteret County, NC 36 mi southeast · 9% at surface

What Craven County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Yorktown Formation and Duplin Formation, Undivided (clay or mud), Tertiary in age, covering about 42% of the county. Next is the Castle Hayne Formation; Comfort Member and New Hanover Member, undivided at 11%.

Against the rest of North Carolina

Craven County ranks 16 of 100 in North Carolina for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 92% of US counties on that measure.