SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Cleveland 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
3%
At or near the surface
3%
Buried under cover
0%

What this means before you buy

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

That works out to roughly 17 of Cleveland County's 539 square miles on soluble rock, 17 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 303,952 residents (564 per square mile), most of the county is built up, so a mapped unit is likely to sit under somebody's street. The figures come from 598 map points about 0.9 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Cleveland County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Grady County, OK, about 34 miles west, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Salt Plains Formation (shale), Early Permian in age, covering about 3% of the county.

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 Oklahoma

Cleveland County ranks 57 of 77 in Oklahoma for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 60% of US counties on that measure.