Sinkhole risk in Hamblen County, TN: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock: 99%
At or near the surface: 99%
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 160 of Hamblen County's 161 square miles on soluble rock, 160 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 67,715 residents (420 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 494 map points about 0.6 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Hamblen County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Haywood County, NC, about 48 miles south. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Grainger County, TN 14 mi west · 79% at surface
Jefferson County, TN 15 mi southwest · 100% at surface
Hancock County, TN 21 mi north · 65% at surface
Cocke County, TN 22 mi south · 50% at surface
Greene County, TN 23 mi east · 88% at surface
Hawkins County, TN 25 mi northeast · 73% at surface

What Hamblen County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Sevier Shale (shale), Ordovician in age, covering about 20% of the county. Next is the Copper Ridge Dolomite at 19%.

Against the rest of Tennessee

Hamblen County ranks 4 of 95 in Tennessee for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 99% of US counties on that measure.