SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Daviess County, MO: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock
72%
At or near the surface
0%
Buried under cover
72%

What to do about a house in Daviess 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 406 of Daviess County's 563 square miles on soluble rock. With about 8,541 residents (15 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 379 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Read next: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and why the 72% under cover still counts.

Counties around Daviess County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Jackson County, MO, about 69 miles south. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Kansas City Group (limestone), Late Pennsylvanian-Upper Series-Missourian Stage in age, covering about 64% of the county. Next is the Lansing Group at 8%.

The county also lies over the Forest City Basin, 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 Missouri

Daviess County ranks 87 of 115 in Missouri for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.