Sinkhole risk in Osborne County, KS: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 39%
At or near the surface: 39%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Osborne County

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 347 of Osborne County's 893 square miles on soluble rock, 347 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 3,353 residents (4 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 414 map points about 1.5 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Osborne County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Franklin County, NE, about 59 miles north. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Rooks County, KS 30 mi west · 48% at surface
Russell County, KS 30 mi south · 47% at surface
Mitchell County, KS 30 mi east · 38% at surface
Smith County, KS 30 mi north · 40% at surface
Lincoln County, KS 36 mi southeast · 33% at surface
Jewell County, KS 41 mi northeast · 32% at surface

What Osborne County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Niobrara Chalk (shale), Late Cretaceous in age, covering about 23% of the county. Next is the Carlile Shale at 15%.

The county also lies over the Permian Basin, Anadarko Basin,Dalhart Basin, Palo Duro 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 Kansas

Osborne County ranks 37 of 105 in Kansas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 83% of US counties on that measure.