Sinkhole risk in Luna County, NM: 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 15 of Luna County's 2,965 square miles on soluble rock, 15 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 25,878 residents (9 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 385 map points about 2.8 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Luna County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Eddy County, NM, about 202 miles east. None of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so Luna County stands out from its surroundings.

Grant County, NM 53 mi northwest · 2% at surface
Doña Ana County, NM 55 mi east · 6% at surface
Hidalgo County, NM 62 mi west · 2% at surface
Sierra County, NM 72 mi northeast · 16% at surface
El Paso County, TX 93 mi east · 21% at surface
Greenlee County, AZ 113 mi northwest · 2% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Permain and Pennsylvanian rocks, undivided (medium-grained mixed clastic), Permain and Pennsylvanian in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of New Mexico

Luna County ranks 29 of 33 in New Mexico for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 53% of US counties on that measure.