Sinkhole risk in Juab County, UT: Mostly deep or small

Mostly deep or small

Some soluble rock, mostly deeply buried or in a small share of the county.

On soluble rock: 11%
At or near the surface: 11%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Juab County

Sinkholes are uncommon here; watch for new depressions after heavy rain or leaking pipes.

That works out to roughly 376 of Juab County's 3,392 square miles on soluble rock, 376 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 13,297 residents (4 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 524 map points about 2.5 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Juab County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Emery County, UT, about 121 miles southeast. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Tooele County, UT 55 mi north · 10% at surface
Millard County, UT 55 mi south · 18% at surface
Utah County, UT 66 mi northeast · 22% at surface
Sanpete County, UT 69 mi east · 14% at surface
Salt Lake County, UT 80 mi northeast · 15% at surface
Sevier County, UT 85 mi southeast · 6% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Devonian sedimentary rocks in western Utah (dolostone (dolomite)), Devonian to Mississippian in age, covering about 2% of the county. Next is the Jurassic (1) sedimentary rocks in central Utah 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 Sevire Valley, 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 Utah

Juab County ranks 14 of 29 in Utah for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 69% of US counties on that measure.