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.

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.