Sinkhole risk in Hopkins 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: 24%
At or near the surface: 24%
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 183 of Hopkins County's 767 square miles on soluble rock, 183 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 38,784 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 339 map points about 1.5 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 Hopkins County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Grady County, OK, about 185 miles northwest. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Delta County, TX 18 mi north · 4% at surface
Franklin County, TX 20 mi east · 31% at surface
Rains County, TX 23 mi southwest · 0% at surface
Wood County, TX 27 mi southeast · 0% at surface
Hunt County, TX 30 mi west · 2% at surface
Titus County, TX 35 mi east · 10% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Midway Group, undivided (fine-grained mixed clastic), Paleocene in age, covering about 24% of the county.

The county also lies over the Gulf Coast salt domes, 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

Hopkins County ranks 95 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 77% of US counties on that measure.