SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Limestone County, TX: 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
4%
At or near the surface
4%
Buried under cover
0%

What this means before you buy

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

That works out to roughly 32 of Limestone County's 905 square miles on soluble rock, 32 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 22,569 residents (25 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 571 map points about 1.3 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 these percentages are measured.

Counties around Limestone County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Taylor County, TX, about 200 miles west. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Pecan Gap Chalk (limestone), Late Cretaceous; Gulfian Series in age, covering about 4% 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

Limestone County ranks 128 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 61% of US counties on that measure.