SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Mitchell 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
70%
At or near the surface
70%
Buried under cover
0%

The next step for one property

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 637 of Mitchell County's 911 square miles on soluble rock, 637 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 8,968 residents (10 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 396 map points about 1.5 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 the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around Mitchell County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Coke County, TX, about 34 miles southeast, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

What Mitchell County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Dockum Group, undivided (fine-grained mixed clastic), Late Triassic in age, covering about 62% of the county. Next is the Quartermaster Formation at 8%.

8% 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 Texas

Mitchell County ranks 23 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 93% of US counties on that measure.