Sinkhole risk in Waldo County, ME: Mostly deep or small

Mostly deep or small

Some soluble rock, mostly deeply buried or in a small share of the county.

On soluble rock: 7%
At or near the surface: 0%
Buried under cover: 7%

What this means before you buy

Sinkholes are uncommon here; watch for new depressions after heavy rain or leaking pipes.

That works out to roughly 52 of Waldo County's 730 square miles on soluble rock. With about 40,617 residents (56 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 252 map points about 1.7 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why the 7% under cover still counts, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Waldo County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Union County, PA, about 470 miles southwest. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Knox County, ME 30 mi south · under 1% at surface
Kennebec County, ME 32 mi west · 0% at surface
Hancock County, ME 37 mi east · 0% at surface
Lincoln County, ME 39 mi southwest · 1% at surface
Sagadahoc County, ME 53 mi southwest · 0% at surface
Androscoggin County, ME 58 mi west · 0% at surface

What Waldo County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Devonian - Ordovician Bucksport Formation (sandstone), Devonian - Ordovician in age, covering about 7% of the county.

Against the rest of Maine

Waldo County ranks 14 of 16 in Maine for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 0% of US counties on that measure.