Sinkhole risk in Madison County, MS: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

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

What this means before you buy

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 1 of Madison County's 714 square miles on soluble rock, 1 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 114,247 residents (160 per square mile), homes are spread across towns and farmland, and a mapped unit may or may not reach the developed parts. The figures come from 539 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Madison County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Oktibbeha County, MS, about 86 miles northeast. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Yazoo County, MS 22 mi northwest · 3% at surface
Rankin County, MS 26 mi south · 13% at surface
Leake County, MS 31 mi east · 9% at surface
Scott County, MS 33 mi southeast · 7% at surface
Holmes County, MS 34 mi north · 0% at surface
Hinds County, MS 36 mi southwest · 24% at surface

What Madison County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Vicksburg group and Chickasawhay limestone (limestone), Oligocene in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

The county also lies over the Gulf Coast salt domes, 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 Mississippi

Madison County ranks 34 of 82 in Mississippi for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 50% of US counties on that measure.