SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Meade County, KS: 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
15%
At or near the surface
15%
Buried under cover
0%

What to do about a house in Meade County

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

That works out to roughly 145 of Meade County's 978 square miles on soluble rock, 145 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 3,892 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 379 map points about 1.6 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Worth reading for this county: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Meade County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Clark County, KS, about 30 miles east, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 2 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 Ogallala Formation (arkose), Miocene in age, covering about 12% of the county. Next is the Guadalupia Series: Big Basin Formation, Day Creek Dolomite, and Whitehorse Formation 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 Permian Basin, Anadarko Basin,Dalhart Basin, Palo Duro 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 Kansas

Meade County ranks 69 of 105 in Kansas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 71% of US counties on that measure.