A sinkhole is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface which may have various causes. Most natural sinkholes are caused by the chemical dissolution of water-soluble carbonate rocks or gypsum. Sinkholes may vary in size from 1 to 600 m both in diameter and depth. Sinkholes may be formed gradually or by sudden collapse and are found worldwide in ‘karst areas.’ Karst areas are not unique to Nova Scotia; in fact, they occur in over a quarter of the earth’s surface. As a result, there are well-established methods for reducing karst risks. These include actions that can be taken both at the planning and construction stage of a project, as well as on-going actions that reduce the risk of future sinkhole formation. This dataset was developed to show areas of Nova Scotia where there is a relatively high-medium-low risk of encountering karst and naturally occurring sinkholes caused by soluble bedrock.

This digital product is a compilation of surficial geological data of the Halifax Metropolitan area which was defined by Dan Utting using a LiDAR derived bare-earth hillshade model. The LiDAR data was collected by PHB Lasermap, and provided by Halifax Regional Municipality. The data was used to create Open File Maps OFM ME 2011-001 to 2011-012, compiled by D. J. Utting, 2011. The digital product was created by Geoscience and Mines Branch staff at the Department of Energy and Mines. The digital product contains layers for geological features such as: age dates, drumlins, eskers, geological contacts, surficial geologic units, ice movement, moraines, meltwater, neatline, station locations, and large aggregate quarries.

The Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (NRR) (formerly the Department of Energy and Mines) and Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (ECC) maintains an electronic Well Log Database which contains water well construction and location information for water wells in the Province of Nova Scotia. Information in the database is entered from original paper copies of well logs that are submitted by certified well drillers and well diggers to ECC. This version of the database was extracted on January 5, 2022 and contains 125,517 well logs constructed between 1940 and 2021, inclusive.