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Minnesota Regions Prone to Surface Karst Feature Development

In Minnesota, surface karst features (including but not restricted to sinkholes, caves, stream sinks, and karst springs) are observed to primarily occur where 50 feet or less of unconsolidated material overlie Paleozoic carbonate bedrock and St. Peter Sandstone, or the Mesoproterozoic Hinckley Sandstone. This product can be used to outline such areas in a GIS environment. The GIS coverage is a superposition of Bedrock Geology and Depth to Bedrock maps prepared by the Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS).<br/><br/>Two feature classes are included: surfacekarst_carbonate_sandstone and surfacekarst_carbonateonly. See Section 5 Overview for more details.

Additional Info

Field Value
dsAccessConst None
dsCurrentRef Data were obtained from Minnesota Geological Survey reports and County Geologic Atlases completed between 1988 and Time Period of Content Date.
dsMetadataUrl https://resources.gisdata.mn.gov/pub/gdrs/data/pub/us_mn_state_dnr/geos_surface_karst_feature_devel/metadata/metadata.html
dsModifiedDate 2024-04-24 00:00:41
dsOriginator Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
dsPeriodOfContent 3/27/2024
dsPurpose Maps created using this product can be used as standalone products or can be used in conjunction with the Minnesota Karst Features Database for planning purposes (see Section 5 Detailed Citation). When combined with the Minnesota Karst Features Database this GIS coverage can be used to document the occurrence and distribution of sinkholes and other surface karst features for planning, environmental and risk management, hazard mitigation, scientific, and other purposes. The coverage outlines areas where karst features may form on the land surface and where karst conditions are likely present in the subsurface. Karst processes provide a direct, very rapid exchange between surface and ground waters and significantly increase groundwater contamination risk from surface pollutants.

A field-verified sinkhole is direct evidence that karst processes are active both on the surface and subsurface. The absence of sinkholes on the land surface does not imply that karst conditions are absent in the subsurface. Subsurface karst conditions also occur in carbonate rock in areas where there is more than 50 feet of unconsolidated material over bedrock but those conditions rarely lead to karst surface feature development in Minnesota.
gdrsDsGuid {66a724c6-c715-4eda-982b-741ff21d7b84}
spatial {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-97.23, 43.5],[-97.23, 49.37], [-89.53, 49.37], [-89.53, 43.5], [-97.23, 43.5]]]}

Dataset extent

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