SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Lake County, MI: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

Fast-dissolving gypsum or salt beds under a large part of the county.

On soluble rock
56%
At or near the surface
0%
Buried under cover
56%

What this means before you buy

Get a sinkhole or geotechnical inspection before buying, building or adding weight to a foundation.

That works out to roughly 317 of Lake County's 568 square miles on soluble rock. With about 13,005 residents (23 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 391 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Read next: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and why the 56% under cover still counts.

Counties around Lake County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Osceola County, MI, about 24 miles east. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Michigan Formation (black shale), Mississippian in age, covering about 44% of the county. Next is the Bayport Limestone at 12%.

44% of the county sits on gypsum or salt, which dissolves in years rather than millennia. That share matters more than its size suggests.

The county also lies over the Michigan Basin; Ohio Basin; Appalachian Basin, a deep salt or gypsum basin. Deep beds rarely cause surface collapse on their own, but wells and mining into them have.

Against the rest of Michigan

Lake County ranks 51 of 83 in Michigan for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.