Sinkhole risk in Beaver County, OK: Mostly deep or small

Mostly deep or small

Some soluble rock, mostly deeply buried or in a small share of the county.

On soluble rock: 5%
At or near the surface: 5%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Beaver County

Sinkholes are uncommon here; watch for new depressions after heavy rain or leaking pipes.

That works out to roughly 89 of Beaver County's 1,815 square miles on soluble rock, 89 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 5,025 residents (3 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 409 map points about 2.1 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Beaver County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Harper County, OK, about 46 miles east. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Lipscomb County, TX 34 mi south · 0% at surface
Meade County, KS 35 mi north · 15% at surface
Seward County, KS 36 mi northwest · under 1% at surface
Ochiltree County, TX 37 mi southwest · under 1% at surface
Harper County, OK 46 mi east · 61% at surface
Clark County, KS 50 mi northeast · 37% at surface

What Beaver County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Permian rocks undifferentiated (shale), Late Permian to Early Permian in age, covering about 5% of the county.

5% of the county sits on gypsum or salt, which dissolves in years rather than millennia. That share matters more than its size suggests.

The county also lies over the Permian Basin, Anadarko Basin,Dalhart Basin, Palo Duro Basin, a deep salt or gypsum basin. Deep beds rarely cause surface collapse on their own, but wells and mining into them have.

Against the rest of Oklahoma

Beaver County ranks 53 of 77 in Oklahoma for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 63% of US counties on that measure.