Sinkhole risk in Rooks County, KS: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

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

On soluble rock: 48%
At or near the surface: 48%
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 426 of Rooks County's 891 square miles on soluble rock, 426 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 4,748 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 414 map points about 1.5 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 Rooks County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Harlan County, NE, about 58 miles north. 6 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Graham County, KS 30 mi west · 33% at surface
Osborne County, KS 30 mi east · 39% at surface
Ellis County, KS 30 mi south · 39% at surface
Phillips County, KS 30 mi north · 32% at surface
Trego County, KS 41 mi southwest · 57% at surface
Smith County, KS 42 mi northeast · 40% at surface

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Niobrara Chalk (shale), Late Cretaceous in age, covering about 40% of the county. Next is the Ogallala Formation at 4%.

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 Kansas

Rooks County ranks 28 of 105 in Kansas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 87% of US counties on that measure.