Sinkhole risk in Henry County, VA: 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 Henry 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 1 of Henry County's 382 square miles on soluble rock, 1 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 49,385 residents (129 per square mile), homes are spread across towns and farmland, and a mapped unit may or may not reach the developed parts. The figures come from 287 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Henry County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Montgomery County, VA, about 44 miles northwest. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Martinsville city, VA 8 mi northeast · 0% at surface
Patrick County, VA 17 mi west · 0% at surface
Rockingham County, NC 20 mi southeast · 9% at surface
Stokes County, NC 22 mi southwest · 41% at surface
Franklin County, VA 26 mi north · under 1% at surface
Floyd County, VA 30 mi northwest · under 1% at surface

What Henry County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Newark Supergroup; Conglomerate, mixed clasts (conglomerate), Triassic in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of Virginia

Henry County ranks 94 of 133 in Virginia for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 51% of US counties on that measure.