SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Whitley County, KY: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

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

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 Whitley County's 438 square miles on soluble rock, 2 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 37,233 residents (85 per square mile), homes are spread across towns and farmland, and a mapped unit may or may not reach the developed parts. The figures come from 250 map points about 1.3 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Whitley County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Claiborne County, TN, about 32 miles southeast, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 3 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 Pennington Formation, Newman Limestone, Fort Payne Chert, Grainger Formation, Sunbury Shale, Berea Sandstone, and Bedford Shale, undivided; Pennington Formation locally includes sandstone tongue of Lee Formation (limestone), Devonian to Pennsylvanian in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of Kentucky

Whitley County ranks 92 of 120 in Kentucky for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 52% of US counties on that measure.