Sinkhole risk in Crawford County, KS: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock: 56%
At or near the surface: 56%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

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

That works out to roughly 329 of Crawford County's 590 square miles on soluble rock, 329 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 38,904 residents (66 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 407 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Crawford County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Crawford County, AR, about 137 miles south. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Cherokee County, KS 23 mi south · 6% at surface
Bourbon County, KS 24 mi north · 68% at surface
Neosho County, KS 26 mi west · 78% at surface
Barton County, MO 28 mi east · 11% at surface
Labette County, KS 33 mi southwest · 74% at surface
Jasper County, MO 35 mi southeast · 85% at surface

What Crawford County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Marmaton Group (shale), Early Pennsylvanian- Desmoinesian in age, covering about 56% of the county. Next is the Kansas City Group at under 1%.

Against the rest of Kansas

Crawford County ranks 20 of 105 in Kansas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 89% of US counties on that measure.