Sinkhole risk in Edgecombe County, NC: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock: 62%
At or near the surface: 62%
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 315 of Edgecombe County's 505 square miles on soluble rock, 315 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 49,124 residents (97 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 583 map points about 0.9 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Edgecombe County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Franklin County, NC, about 40 miles west. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Nash County, NC 22 mi west · 16% at surface
Halifax County, NC 23 mi north · 24% at surface
Wilson County, NC 23 mi southwest · 68% at surface
Pitt County, NC 26 mi southeast · 86% at surface
Martin County, NC 27 mi east · 84% at surface
Greene County, NC 30 mi south · 82% at surface

What Edgecombe 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 62% of the county.

Against the rest of North Carolina

Edgecombe County ranks 20 of 100 in North Carolina for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 91% of US counties on that measure.