Sinkhole risk in Hand County, SD: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

On soluble rock: under 1%
At or near the surface: 0%
Buried under cover: under 1%

What this means before you buy

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 11 of Hand County's 1,437 square miles on soluble rock. With about 3,097 residents (2 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 396 map points about 1.9 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Hand County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Boyd County, NE, about 115 miles south. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Hyde County, SD 23 mi west · 0% at surface
Buffalo County, SD 36 mi south · 3% at surface
Faulk County, SD 37 mi north · 0% at surface
Beadle County, SD 37 mi east · 0% at surface
Jerauld County, SD 38 mi southeast · 0% at surface
Spink County, SD 42 mi northeast · 0% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Niobrara Formation (limestone), Late Cretaceous in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of South Dakota

Hand County ranks 34 of 66 in South Dakota for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.