Sinkhole risk in Pawnee County, OK: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 31%
At or near the surface: 31%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Pawnee 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 176 of Pawnee County's 568 square miles on soluble rock, 176 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 16,111 residents (28 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 513 map points about 1.1 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Counties around Pawnee County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Montgomery County, KS, about 80 miles northeast. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Payne County, OK 22 mi southwest · 18% at surface
Osage County, OK 27 mi northeast · 39% at surface
Noble County, OK 30 mi west · 0% at surface
Creek County, OK 33 mi southeast · 15% at surface
Kay County, OK 43 mi northwest · 26% at surface
Lincoln County, OK 43 mi south · 28% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Vanoss Group (shale), Late Pennsylvanian in age, covering about 31% of the county. Next is the Ada Group or Ada Formation at under 1%.

Against the rest of Oklahoma

Pawnee County ranks 28 of 77 in Oklahoma for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 80% of US counties on that measure.