Sinkhole risk in Baylor County, TX: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

Fast-dissolving gypsum or salt beds under a large part of the county.

On soluble rock: 50%
At or near the surface: 50%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

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

That works out to roughly 436 of Baylor County's 867 square miles on soluble rock, 436 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 3,533 residents (4 per square mile), much of the land is open, and the mapped rock may sit far from where people actually live. The figures come from 396 map points about 1.5 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around Baylor County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Archer County, TX, about 30 miles east. 3 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Archer County, TX 30 mi east · 0% at surface
Knox County, TX 30 mi west · 55% at surface
Throckmorton County, TX 31 mi south · 37% at surface
Wilbarger County, TX 32 mi north · 39% at surface
Wichita County, TX 38 mi northeast · under 1% at surface
Foard County, TX 42 mi northwest · 72% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Clear Fork Group (mudstone), Permian; Leonard Series in age, covering about 26% of the county. Next is the Lueders Formation at 12%.

26% of the county sits on gypsum or salt, which dissolves in years rather than millennia. That share matters more than its size suggests.

Against the rest of Texas

Baylor County ranks 50 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 87% of US counties on that measure.