Sinkhole risk in Fayette County, WV: 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 to do about a house in Fayette County

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 5 of Fayette County's 662 square miles on soluble rock, 5 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 38,600 residents (58 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 256 map points about 1.6 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Fayette County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Summers County, WV, about 29 miles southeast, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Raleigh County, WV 21 mi southwest · 2% at surface
Nicholas County, WV 24 mi northeast · 0% at surface
Summers County, WV 29 mi southeast · 73% at surface
Clay County, WV 30 mi north · 0% at surface
Kanawha County, WV 31 mi northwest · 0% at surface
Boone County, WV 34 mi west · 0% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Hinton Formation (shale), Mississippian in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of West Virginia

Fayette County ranks 26 of 55 in West Virginia for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 54% of US counties on that measure.