SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Schuyler County, MO: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

On soluble rock
under 1%
At or near the surface
0%
Buried under cover
under 1%

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 2 of Schuyler County's 307 square miles on soluble rock. With about 4,069 residents (13 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 373 map points about 0.9 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 Schuyler County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Cooper County, MO, about 113 miles south. 2 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 Meramecian Series (limestone), Late Mississippian-Meramecian Series in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

The county also lies over the Forest City 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 Missouri

Schuyler County ranks 111 of 115 in Missouri for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.