Sinkhole risk in Custer County, CO: No soluble rock mapped
No soluble rock mapped
No soluble bedrock mapped.
- On soluble rock
- under 1%
- At or near the surface
- under 1%
- Buried under cover
- 0%
What to do about a house in Custer County
No soluble bedrock is mapped here, so natural sinkholes are unlikely. Collapses from broken pipes or old mines are a separate risk.
That works out to roughly 5 of Custer County's 739 square miles on soluble rock, 5 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 5,553 residents (8 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 282 map points about 1.6 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.
Read next: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.
Counties around Custer County
The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Emery County, UT, about 296 miles west. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.
- Fremont County, CO 25 mi north · 12% at surface
- Huerfano County, CO 36 mi southeast · 23% at surface
- Alamosa County, CO 43 mi southwest · 0% at surface
- Saguache County, CO 47 mi west · 1% at surface
- Pueblo County, CO 48 mi east · 45% at surface
- Teller County, CO 54 mi north · under 1% at surface
Which formation it is
The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Carlile Shale, Greenhorn Limestone, and Graneros Shale (shale), Cretaceous in age, covering about under 1% of the county.
Against the rest of Colorado
Custer County ranks 34 of 64 in Colorado for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 54% of US counties on that measure.
- Pueblo County 45%
- Bent County 44%
- Otero County 42%
- Prowers County 35%
- Kiowa County 30%