Sinkhole risk in Morgan County, TN: 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 Morgan County's 522 square miles on soluble rock, 1 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 21,954 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 506 map points about 1.0 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Morgan County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Roane County, TN, about 21 miles south, 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.

Roane County, TN 21 mi south · 74% at surface
Scott County, TN 22 mi north · 0% at surface
Fentress County, TN 23 mi northwest · 15% at surface
Cumberland County, TN 24 mi southwest · 3% at surface
Anderson County, TN 25 mi east · 50% at surface
Campbell County, TN 32 mi northeast · 28% at surface

What Morgan County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here 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 (limestone), Ordovician in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of Tennessee

Morgan County ranks 79 of 95 in Tennessee for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 50% of US counties on that measure.