Sinkhole risk in El Paso 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: 21%
At or near the surface: 21%
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 216 of El Paso County's 1,014 square miles on soluble rock, 216 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 875,784 residents (864 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 244 map points about 2.0 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 the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around El Paso County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Eddy County, NM, about 123 miles northeast. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Doña Ana County, NM 53 mi northwest · 6% at surface
Hudspeth County, TX 55 mi southeast · 38% at surface
Otero County, NM 65 mi northeast · 59% at surface
Luna County, NM 93 mi west · under 1% at surface
Culberson County, TX 103 mi east · 53% at surface
Sierra County, NM 109 mi northwest · 16% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the bolson deposits (clay or mud), Pleistocene and Holocene in age, covering about 15% of the county. Next is the Hueco Limestone at 5%.

15% 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 Texas

El Paso County ranks 100 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 75% of US counties on that measure.