Sinkhole risk in Kern County, CA: 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%

The next step for one property

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 49 of Kern County's 8,135 square miles on soluble rock, 49 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 922,529 residents (113 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 321 map points about 5.0 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 Kern County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Emery County, UT, about 508 miles northeast. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Tulare County, CA 61 mi north · 3% at surface
Ventura County, CA 72 mi south · 9% at surface
Kings County, CA 79 mi northwest · 0% at surface
Los Angeles County, CA 84 mi south · 1% at surface
Santa Barbara County, CA 93 mi southwest · 3% at surface
San Luis Obispo County, CA 97 mi west · under 1% at surface

What Kern County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Oligocene nonmarine rocks, unit 2 (Central and Southern California) (sandstone), middle Eocene to early Miocene in age, covering about under 1% of the county. Next is the Limestone of probable Paleozoic or Mesozoic age at under 1%.

Against the rest of California

Kern County ranks 22 of 58 in California for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 53% of US counties on that measure.