Sinkhole risk in Estill County, KY: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 17%
At or near the surface: 17%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

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 43 of Estill County's 253 square miles on soluble rock, 43 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 14,002 residents (55 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 532 map points about 0.7 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Estill County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Clark County, KY, about 22 miles northwest, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Powell County, KY 11 mi northeast · 10% at surface
Lee County, KY 15 mi southeast · 6% at surface
Madison County, KY 17 mi west · 46% at surface
Jackson County, KY 20 mi south · 13% at surface
Clark County, KY 22 mi northwest · 64% at surface
Owsley County, KY 24 mi southeast · 0% at surface

What Estill County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Crab Orchard Formation and Brassfield Dolomite, undivided (shale), Silurian in age, covering about 11% of the county. Next is the Pennington Formation and Newman Limestone at 6%.

Against the rest of Kentucky

Estill County ranks 70 of 120 in Kentucky for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 73% of US counties on that measure.