Sinkhole risk in Hayes County, NE: 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 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 4 of Hayes County's 713 square miles on soluble rock, 4 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 846 residents (1 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 400 map points about 1.3 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Hayes County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Harlan County, NE, about 90 miles east. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Hitchcock County, NE 25 mi south · 20% at surface
Frontier County, NE 34 mi east · under 1% at surface
Chase County, NE 34 mi west · 0% at surface
Perkins County, NE 38 mi northwest · 0% at surface
Lincoln County, NE 39 mi northeast · 0% at surface
Red Willow County, NE 40 mi southeast · 16% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Pierre Shale (shale), Late Cretaceous in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of Nebraska

Hayes County ranks 34 of 93 in Nebraska for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 53% of US counties on that measure.