Sinkhole risk in Monroe County, MS: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock: 31%
At or near the surface: 31%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

Check the parcel against your state survey sinkhole map, and ask for an inspection if cracks, depressions or sticking doors show up.

That works out to roughly 236 of Monroe County's 765 square miles on soluble rock, 236 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 33,483 residents (44 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 337 map points about 1.5 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 Monroe County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Clay County, MS, about 23 miles southwest, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Clay County, MS 23 mi southwest · 94% at surface
Lamar County, AL 24 mi east · 0% at surface
Chickasaw County, MS 27 mi west · 93% at surface
Itawamba County, MS 28 mi north · 4% at surface
Lowndes County, MS 29 mi south · 44% at surface
Lee County, MS 30 mi north · 62% at surface

What Monroe County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Mooreville chalk (carbonate), Upper Cretaceous in age, covering about 17% of the county. Next is the Demopolis chalk at 14%.

Against the rest of Mississippi

Monroe County ranks 12 of 82 in Mississippi for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 80% of US counties on that measure.