Sinkhole risk in Childress County, TX: Sinkhole country

Sinkhole country

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

On soluble rock: 81%
At or near the surface: 81%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Childress County

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

That works out to roughly 563 of Childress County's 697 square miles on soluble rock, 563 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 6,679 residents (10 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 400 map points about 1.3 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Childress County

The closest county with no soluble rock mapped is Tillman County, OK, about 74 miles east. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Hall County, TX 22 mi west · 69% at surface
Harmon County, OK 26 mi northeast · 77% at surface
Cottle County, TX 30 mi south · 79% at surface
Collingsworth County, TX 31 mi north · 59% at surface
Hardeman County, TX 31 mi southeast · 63% at surface
Foard County, TX 45 mi southeast · 72% at surface

What Childress County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Blaine Formation (mudstone), Permian; Guadalupe Series in age, covering about 56% of the county. Next is the Whitehorse Group, undivided at 24%.

81% 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 Texas

Childress County ranks 19 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 95% of US counties on that measure.