Sinkhole risk in Lyon County, KY: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock: 58%
At or near the surface: 58%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Lyon County

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

That works out to roughly 124 of Lyon County's 214 square miles on soluble rock, 124 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 9,078 residents (42 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 242 map points about 0.9 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 Lyon County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Marshall County, KY, about 17 miles southwest. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Caldwell County, KY 15 mi northeast · 74% at surface
Marshall County, KY 17 mi southwest · under 1% at surface
Trigg County, KY 19 mi southeast · 75% at surface
Livingston County, KY 20 mi northwest · 54% at surface
Crittenden County, KY 23 mi north · 66% at surface
Calloway County, KY 30 mi south · 3% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis Limestones, undivided (limestone), Mississippian in age, covering about 50% of the county. Next is the Warsaw Limestone at 8%.

Against the rest of Kentucky

Lyon County ranks 31 of 120 in Kentucky for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 89% of US counties on that measure.