Sinkhole risk in Meade County, KY: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock: 93%
At or near the surface: 91%
Buried under cover: 2%

The next step for one property

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

That works out to roughly 285 of Meade County's 305 square miles on soluble rock, 278 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 30,442 residents (100 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 476 map points about 0.8 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around Meade County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Spencer County, IN, about 44 miles west. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Harrison County, IN 16 mi north · 94% at surface
Breckinridge County, KY 18 mi southwest · 89% at surface
Hardin County, KY 23 mi southeast · 89% at surface
Perry County, IN 24 mi west · 49% at surface
Crawford County, IN 26 mi northwest · 83% at surface
Bullitt County, KY 27 mi east · 42% at surface

What Meade County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis Limestones, undivided (limestone), Mississippian in age, covering about 60% of the county. Next is the Rocks of Chesterian age, lower part at 27%.

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 Kentucky

Meade County ranks 6 of 120 in Kentucky for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 97% of US counties on that measure.