Sinkhole risk in Mora County, NM: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 19%
At or near the surface: 19%
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 374 of Mora County's 1,926 square miles on soluble rock, 374 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 4,096 residents (2 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 304 map points about 2.5 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 Mora County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Briscoe County, TX, about 233 miles southeast. 3 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

San Miguel County, NM 36 mi south · 28% at surface
Colfax County, NM 46 mi north · 6% at surface
Taos County, NM 57 mi northwest · 19% at surface
Harding County, NM 60 mi east · 12% at surface
Santa Fe County, NM 67 mi southwest · 18% at surface
Guadalupe County, NM 77 mi south · 14% at surface

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Permain and Pennsylvanian rocks, undivided (medium-grained mixed clastic), Permain and Pennsylvanian in age, covering about 13% of the county. Next is the Greenhorn Formation at 3%.

Against the rest of New Mexico

Mora County ranks 10 of 33 in New Mexico for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 74% of US counties on that measure.