SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Meigs County, TN: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock
91%
At or near the surface
91%
Buried under cover
0%

What this means before you buy

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

That works out to roughly 177 of Meigs County's 195 square miles on soluble rock, 177 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 13,937 residents (71 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 311 map points about 0.8 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Meigs County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Morgan County, TN, about 44 miles north. 3 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Knox Group, including Newala Formation, Mascot Dolomite, Kingsport Formation, Longview Dolomite, Chepultepec Dolomite, and Copper Ridge Dolomite (dolostone (dolomite)), Ordovician to Cambrian in age, covering about 31% of the county. Next is the Chickamauga Group, includes Upper part of Chickamauga Group (Reedsville Shale, and Unnamed limestone unit) and Middle and Lower part of Chickamauga Group (Moccasin Formation, Bays Formation, Ottosee Shale, Holston Formation, Lenoir Limestone, Athens at 26%.

Against the rest of Tennessee

Meigs County ranks 12 of 95 in Tennessee for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 97% of US counties on that measure.