Sinkhole risk in Larue County, KY: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

Soluble rock at or near the surface across much of the county.

On soluble rock: 78%
At or near the surface: 78%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Larue County

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

That works out to roughly 202 of Larue County's 261 square miles on soluble rock, 202 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 15,128 residents (58 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 524 map points about 0.7 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Larue County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Daviess County, KY, about 77 miles west. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Hardin County, KY 18 mi northwest · 89% at surface
Hart County, KY 19 mi southwest · 89% at surface
Green County, KY 20 mi southeast · 88% at surface
Nelson County, KY 22 mi northeast · 56% at surface
Marion County, KY 23 mi east · 45% at surface
Taylor County, KY 24 mi southeast · 49% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis Limestones, undivided (limestone), Mississippian in age, covering about 65% of the county. Next is the Salem, Warsaw, and Harrodsburg Limestones, undivided at 12%.

Against the rest of Kentucky

Larue County ranks 16 of 120 in Kentucky for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 94% of US counties on that measure.