Sinkhole risk in Laramie County, WY: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

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

What this means before you buy

No soluble bedrock is mapped here, so natural sinkholes are unlikely. Collapses from broken pipes or old mines are a separate risk.

That works out to roughly 13 of Laramie County's 2,686 square miles on soluble rock, 13 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 101,783 residents (38 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 379 map points about 2.7 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Laramie County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Dawes County, NE, about 126 miles northeast. 3 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Kimball County, NE 50 mi east · 0% at surface
Banner County, NE 51 mi east · 0% at surface
Weld County, CO 53 mi south · 0% at surface
Goshen County, WY 57 mi north · 1% at surface
Platte County, WY 60 mi north · 8% at surface
Albany County, WY 61 mi northwest · 12% at surface

What Laramie County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Wells and Amsden Formations (TB), or Casper Formation and Madison Limestone (N, S) (limestone), Upper Mississippian-Permian in age, covering about under 1% of the county. Next is the Casper and Fountain Formations at under 1%.

The county also lies over the Northern Denver 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 Wyoming

Laramie County ranks 21 of 23 in Wyoming for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 53% of US counties on that measure.