Sinkhole risk in Hettinger County, ND: No soluble rock mapped

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.

Across 1,132 square miles, under one square mile of Hettinger County maps onto soluble rock. With about 2,419 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 366 map points about 1.8 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Hettinger County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Fall River County, SD, about 228 miles south. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

• Adams County, ND 24 mi south · 0% at surface
• Stark County, ND 28 mi north · 0% at surface
• Grant County, ND 39 mi east · 0% at surface
• Slope County, ND 48 mi west · under 1% at surface
• Bowman County, ND 55 mi southwest · 0% at surface
• Morton County, ND 58 mi east · 0% at surface

Against the rest of North Dakota

Hettinger County ranks 24 of 53 in North Dakota for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.

• Cavalier County 2%
• Ransom County under 1%
• Dunn County under 1%
• Barnes County under 1%
• Slope County under 1%