SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Hockley County, TX: Not karst, but voids possible

Not karst, but voids possible

No soluble bedrock; some pseudokarst (piping or lava-tube ground).

On soluble rock
under 1%
At or near the surface
under 1%
Buried under cover
0%

What this means before you buy

Not true karst, but soil piping or lava tubes can still open voids - mention it to an inspector.

That works out to roughly 3 of Hockley County's 908 square miles on soluble rock, 3 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 21,505 residents (24 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 389 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 how ground with no limestone still opens up.

Counties around Hockley County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Dickens County, TX, about 90 miles east. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Duck Creek Limestone and Kiamichi Formation, undivided (limestone), Early Cretaceous in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

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

Hockley County ranks 144 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 51% of US counties on that measure.