Sinkhole risk in Bowie County, TX: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock: 24%
At or near the surface: 24%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

Check the parcel against your state survey sinkhole map, and ask for an inspection if cracks, depressions or sticking doors show up.

That works out to roughly 209 of Bowie County's 885 square miles on soluble rock, 209 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 91,992 residents (104 per square mile), homes are spread across towns and farmland, and a mapped unit may or may not reach the developed parts. The figures come from 275 map points about 1.8 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 Bowie County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Adair County, OK, about 170 miles north. None of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so Bowie County stands out from its surroundings.

Little River County, AR 21 mi northeast · 4% at surface
Cass County, TX 25 mi south · 0% at surface
Morris County, TX 29 mi southwest · 0% at surface
Miller County, AR 32 mi east · 0% at surface
Titus County, TX 35 mi southwest · 10% at surface
Red River County, TX 38 mi west · 8% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Midway Group, undivided (fine-grained mixed clastic), Paleocene in age, covering about 24% of the county.

The county also lies over the Gulf Coast salt domes, 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 Texas

Bowie County ranks 96 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 77% of US counties on that measure.