Sinkhole risk in Wakulla County, FL: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 97%
At or near the surface: 45%
Buried under cover: 52%

What to do about a house in Wakulla County

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

Standard Florida homeowners policies cover only catastrophic ground cover collapse; full sinkhole coverage is a separately priced option insurers must offer.

That works out to roughly 588 of Wakulla County's 606 square miles on soluble rock, 272 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 37,115 residents (61 per square mile), there is effectively nowhere in the county off the soluble rock, town or country. The figures come from 286 map points about 1.5 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Wakulla County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Taylor County, FL, about 44 miles east. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Leon County, FL 26 mi north · 43% at surface
Liberty County, FL 33 mi west · 15% at surface
Jefferson County, FL 34 mi northeast · 46% at surface
Gadsden County, FL 37 mi northwest · 33% at surface
Franklin County, FL 40 mi southwest · 7% at surface
Taylor County, FL 44 mi east · 54% at surface

What Wakulla County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the St. Marks Formation (limestone), Miocene in age, covering about 40% of the county. Next is the Hawthorn Group, Torreya Formation at 30%.

The county also lies over the Floridan shelf, 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 Florida

Wakulla County ranks 31 of 67 in Florida for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 86% of US counties on that measure.