Sinkhole risk in Churchill County, NV: 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: 6%
At or near the surface: 6%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Churchill County

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

That works out to roughly 277 of Churchill County's 4,950 square miles on soluble rock, 277 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 26,033 residents (5 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 322 map points about 3.9 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Churchill County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Emery County, UT, about 405 miles east. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Lyon County, NV 61 mi southwest · 9% at surface
Pershing County, NV 63 mi north · 16% at surface
Storey County, NV 68 mi west · 7% at surface
Lander County, NV 69 mi east · 8% at surface
Mineral County, NV 71 mi south · 7% at surface
Carson City, NV 84 mi west · 2% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Shale, mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, and carbonate rock; sparse volcanic rock (claystone), Late Triassic to Early Jurassic in age, covering about 3% of the county. Next is the Tuffaceous sedimentary rocks at 2%.

3% 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 Nevada

Churchill County ranks 15 of 17 in Nevada for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 63% of US counties on that measure.