SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Reeves County, TX: Mostly deep or small

Mostly deep or small

Some soluble rock, mostly deeply buried or in a small share of the county.

On soluble rock
9%
At or near the surface
9%
Buried under cover
0%

What this means before you buy

Sinkholes are uncommon here; watch for new depressions after heavy rain or leaking pipes.

That works out to roughly 232 of Reeves County's 2,635 square miles on soluble rock, 232 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 11,956 residents (5 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 499 map points about 2.3 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 how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Reeves County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Loving County, TX, about 38 miles north, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 2 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Gatuna Formation (sand), Middle (?) Pleistocene in age, covering about 2% of the county. Next is the Boracho Limestone at 2%.

3% 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

Reeves County ranks 117 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 67% of US counties on that measure.