Sinkhole risk in Duplin County, NC: Sinkhole country
Sinkhole country
Soluble rock at or near the surface across much of the county.
- On soluble rock
- 93%
- At or near the surface
- 93%
- 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 759 of Duplin County's 815 square miles on soluble rock, 759 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 50,539 residents (62 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 320 map points about 1.6 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.
Read next: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.
Counties around Duplin County
The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Franklin County, NC, about 82 miles north. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.
- Sampson County, NC 25 mi west · 77% at surface
- Lenoir County, NC 27 mi northeast · 71% at surface
- Onslow County, NC 27 mi southeast · 65% at surface
- Pender County, NC 29 mi south · 89% at surface
- Wayne County, NC 29 mi north · 84% at surface
- Jones County, NC 33 mi east · 92% at surface
What Duplin County is built on
The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Peedee Formation (sand), Cretaceous in age, covering about 51% of the county. Next is the Black Creek Formation at 30%.
Against the rest of North Carolina
Duplin County ranks 1 of 100 in North Carolina for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 98% of US counties on that measure.
- Jones County 92%
- Scotland County 91%
- Pender County 89%
- Robeson County 89%
- Pitt County 86%