Sinkhole risk in Wilson County, NC: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

Soluble rock at or near the surface across much of the county.

On soluble rock: 68%
At or near the surface: 68%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Wilson County

Get a sinkhole or geotechnical inspection before buying, building or adding weight to a foundation.

That works out to roughly 250 of Wilson County's 368 square miles on soluble rock, 250 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 79,958 residents (218 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 251 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Wilson County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Franklin County, NC, about 34 miles northwest. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Nash County, NC 19 mi north · 16% at surface
Greene County, NC 20 mi southeast · 82% at surface
Edgecombe County, NC 23 mi northeast · 62% at surface
Wayne County, NC 24 mi south · 84% at surface
Johnston County, NC 28 mi southwest · 38% at surface
Pitt County, NC 32 mi east · 86% at surface

What Wilson County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Yorktown Formation and Duplin Formation, Undivided (clay or mud), Tertiary in age, covering about 68% of the county.

Against the rest of North Carolina

Wilson County ranks 18 of 100 in North Carolina for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 92% of US counties on that measure.