Sinkhole risk in Dinwiddie County, VA: 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%

What this means before you buy

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 4 of Dinwiddie County's 504 square miles on soluble rock, 4 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 28,576 residents (57 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 274 map points about 1.4 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Dinwiddie County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Hertford County, NC, about 61 miles southeast. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Petersburg city, VA 16 mi northeast · 17% at surface
Colonial Heights city, VA 18 mi northeast · 12% at surface
Chesterfield County, VA 21 mi north · 2% at surface
Sussex County, VA 23 mi southeast · 14% at surface
Nottoway County, VA 24 mi west · 0% at surface
Hopewell city, VA 24 mi northeast · 14% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Chesapeake Group (sand), Tertiary in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of Virginia

Dinwiddie County ranks 87 of 133 in Virginia for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 54% of US counties on that measure.