Sinkhole risk in Hale County, AL: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 20%
At or near the surface: 20%
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 129 of Hale County's 644 square miles on soluble rock, 129 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 15,116 residents (23 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 279 map points about 1.5 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Hale County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Noxubee County, MS, about 60 miles northwest. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Perry County, AL 21 mi east · 29% at surface
Greene County, AL 21 mi west · 18% at surface
Bibb County, AL 34 mi northeast · 12% at surface
Sumter County, AL 35 mi west · 46% at surface
Marengo County, AL 36 mi south · 33% at surface
Tuscaloosa County, AL 38 mi north · 2% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Selma Group; Mooreville Chalk (carbonate), Cretaceous in age, covering about 15% of the county. Next is the Selma Group; Demopolis Chalk at 5%.

Against the rest of Alabama

Hale County ranks 32 of 67 in Alabama for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 74% of US counties on that measure.