Sinkhole risk in Cooke 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: 52%
At or near the surface: 52%
Buried under cover: 0%

What this means before you buy

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 451 of Cooke County's 875 square miles on soluble rock, 451 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 44,258 residents (51 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 314 map points about 1.7 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Cooke County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Grady County, OK, about 103 miles north. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Love County, OK 22 mi north · 13% at surface
Montague County, TX 30 mi west · 4% at surface
Denton County, TX 30 mi south · 41% at surface
Grayson County, TX 31 mi east · 36% at surface
Marshall County, OK 37 mi northeast · 35% at surface
Wise County, TX 39 mi southwest · 24% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Fort Worth Limestone and Duck Creek Formation, undivided (limestone), Early Cretaceous in age, covering about 25% of the county. Next is the Pawpaw Formation, Weno Limestone, and Denton Clay, undivided at 13%.

Against the rest of Texas

Cooke County ranks 48 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 88% of US counties on that measure.