Sinkhole risk in Mills County, TX: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock: 16%
At or near the surface: 16%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Mills County

Check the parcel against your state survey sinkhole map, and ask for an inspection if cracks, depressions or sticking doors show up.

That works out to roughly 120 of Mills County's 748 square miles on soluble rock, 120 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 4,563 residents (6 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 530 map points about 1.2 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: the signs to look for and how an inspection works, and how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Mills County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Runnels County, TX, about 85 miles west. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

San Saba County, TX 27 mi southwest · 59% at surface
Lampasas County, TX 29 mi southeast · 57% at surface
Brown County, TX 30 mi northwest · 19% at surface
Comanche County, TX 32 mi north · 28% at surface
Hamilton County, TX 32 mi northeast · 34% at surface
Coryell County, TX 48 mi east · 35% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Paluxy Sand and Glen Rose Limestone, undivided (sandstone), Early Cretaceous in age, covering about 15% of the county. Next is the Glen Rose Limestone at 2%.

Against the rest of Texas

Mills County ranks 106 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 72% of US counties on that measure.