Sinkhole risk in Ritchie County, WV: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

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

What to do about a house in Ritchie County

No soluble bedrock is mapped here, so natural sinkholes are unlikely. Collapses from broken pipes or old mines are a separate risk.

Across 452 square miles, under one square mile of Ritchie County maps onto soluble rock. With about 8,170 residents (18 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 270 map points about 1.3 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 how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Ritchie County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Summers County, WV, about 106 miles south. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Pleasants County, WV 14 mi north · 0% at surface
Doddridge County, WV 20 mi east · 0% at surface
Wirt County, WV 20 mi southwest · 0% at surface
Gilmer County, WV 21 mi southeast · 0% at surface
Tyler County, WV 22 mi northeast · 0% at surface
Calhoun County, WV 23 mi south · 0% at surface

Against the rest of West Virginia

Ritchie County ranks 46 of 55 in West Virginia for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.