Sinkhole risk in Pecos 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: 31%
At or near the surface: 31%
Buried under cover: 0%

What to do about a house in Pecos 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 1,491 of Pecos County's 4,764 square miles on soluble rock, 1,491 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 14,712 residents (3 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 502 map points about 3.1 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around Pecos County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Ector County, TX, about 76 miles north. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Crane County, TX 48 mi north · 16% at surface
Terrell County, TX 54 mi southeast · 88% at surface
Ward County, TX 56 mi northwest · 26% at surface
Upton County, TX 57 mi northeast · 30% at surface
Reeves County, TX 70 mi northwest · 9% at surface
Brewster County, TX 74 mi southwest · 32% at surface

What Pecos County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Edwards Limestone (limestone), Early Cretaceous in age, covering about 19% of the county. Next is the Fredericksburg Group at 6%.

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

Pecos County ranks 82 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 80% of US counties on that measure.