Sinkhole risk in Laurens County, GA: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock: 100%
At or near the surface: 8%
Buried under cover: 92%

What this means before you buy

Check the parcel against your state survey sinkhole map, and ask for an inspection if cracks, depressions or sticking doors show up.

That works out to roughly 807 of Laurens County's 807 square miles on soluble rock, 65 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 50,287 residents (62 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 246 map points about 1.8 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why the 92% under cover still counts, and the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around Laurens County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Pulaski County, GA, about 34 miles west, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Treutlen County, GA 21 mi east · 0% at surface
Dodge County, GA 21 mi southwest · 6% at surface
Wheeler County, GA 23 mi southeast · 0% at surface
Bleckley County, GA 24 mi west · 39% at surface
Johnson County, GA 26 mi northeast · 0% at surface
Montgomery County, GA 28 mi southeast · 0% at surface

What Laurens County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Suwannee Limestone and its residuum (limestone), Oligocene in age, covering about 92% of the county. Next is the Lower Tertiary-Cretaceous undifferentiated at 4%.

Against the rest of Georgia

Laurens County ranks 48 of 159 in Georgia for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 66% of US counties on that measure.