Sinkhole risk in Inyo County, CA: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock: 17%
At or near the surface: 17%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

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 1,744 of Inyo County's 10,197 square miles on soluble rock, 1,744 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 18,485 residents (2 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 519 map points about 4.4 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Inyo County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Emery County, UT, about 402 miles northeast. None of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so Inyo County stands out from its surroundings.

Tulare County, CA 80 mi west · 3% at surface
Esmeralda County, NV 85 mi north · 15% at surface
Nye County, NV 110 mi northeast · 7% at surface
Kern County, CA 112 mi southwest · under 1% at surface
Mono County, CA 124 mi northwest · 2% at surface
Fresno County, CA 126 mi west · 0% at surface

What Inyo County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Cambrian marine rocks (sandstone), Late Proterozoic to Middle Devonian in age, covering about 8% of the county. Next is the Silurian and/or Ordovician marine rocks, unit 1 (Death Valley) at 4%.

Against the rest of California

Inyo County ranks 2 of 58 in California for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 73% of US counties on that measure.