SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Garza 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
66%
At or near the surface
66%
Buried under cover
0%

What to do about a house in Garza County

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 593 of Garza County's 893 square miles on soluble rock, 593 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 4,645 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 396 map points about 1.5 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Read next: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around Garza County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Kent County, TX, about 31 miles east, 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 Dockum Group, undivided (fine-grained mixed clastic), Late Triassic in age, covering about 63% of the county. Next is the Quartermaster Formation at 2%.

2% of the county sits on gypsum or salt, which dissolves in years rather than millennia. That share matters more than its size suggests.

The county also lies over the Permian Basin, Anadarko Basin,Dalhart Basin, Palo Duro Basin, a deep salt or gypsum basin. Deep beds rarely cause surface collapse on their own, but wells and mining into them have.

Against the rest of Texas

Garza County ranks 26 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 92% of US counties on that measure.