Sinkhole risk in Levy County, FL: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock: 98%
At or near the surface: 67%
Buried under cover: 31%

What this means before you buy

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

Standard Florida homeowners policies cover only catastrophic ground cover collapse; full sinkhole coverage is a separately priced option insurers must offer.

That works out to roughly 1,091 of Levy County's 1,118 square miles on soluble rock, 746 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 47,765 residents (43 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 249 map points about 2.1 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: what Florida insurers have to cover, and why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone.

Counties around Levy County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Gulf County, FL, about 152 miles west. 3 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Dixie County, FL 31 mi northwest · 93% at surface
Gilchrist County, FL 31 mi north · 52% at surface
Citrus County, FL 32 mi southeast · 48% at surface
Alachua County, FL 40 mi northeast · 78% at surface
Marion County, FL 48 mi east · 46% at surface
Hernando County, FL 53 mi south · 39% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Ocala Limestone (limestone), Eocene in age, covering about 91% of the county. Next is the Avon Park Formation at 6%.

The county also lies over the Floridan shelf, 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 Florida

Levy County ranks 18 of 67 in Florida for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 92% of US counties on that measure.