Sinkhole risk in Livingston County, IL: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

On soluble rock: under 1%
At or near the surface: 0%
Buried under cover: under 1%

What to do about a house in Livingston County

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 6 of Livingston County's 1,044 square miles on soluble rock. With about 35,375 residents (34 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 336 map points about 1.8 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Livingston County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Jo Daviess County, IL, about 133 miles northwest. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Ford County, IL 27 mi southeast · 0% at surface
Grundy County, IL 29 mi north · 0% at surface
McLean County, IL 32 mi southwest · 0% at surface
Woodford County, IL 35 mi west · 0% at surface
LaSalle County, IL 36 mi northwest · 0% at surface
Iroquois County, IL 39 mi east · 0% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Silurian (dolostone (dolomite)), Silurian in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

The county also lies over the Illinois 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 Illinois

Livingston County ranks 67 of 102 in Illinois for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.