Sinkhole risk in Sandoval 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
- 18%
- At or near the surface
- 18%
- 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 660 of Sandoval County's 3,710 square miles on soluble rock, 660 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 157,757 residents (43 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 275 map points about 3.7 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.
Read next: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and the signs to look for and how an inspection works.
Counties around Sandoval County
The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Eddy County, NM, about 267 miles southeast. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.
- Los Alamos County, NM 35 mi east · 0% at surface
- Bernalillo County, NM 45 mi south · 6% at surface
- Santa Fe County, NM 53 mi east · 18% at surface
- Rio Arriba County, NM 58 mi north · 6% at surface
- Valencia County, NM 67 mi south · 13% at surface
- McKinley County, NM 77 mi west · 13% at surface
The rock underneath
The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Santa Fe Group (clastic), Quaternary and Tertiary in age, covering about 8% of the county. Next is the Morrison Formation 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.
Against the rest of New Mexico
Sandoval County ranks 13 of 33 in New Mexico for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 73% of US counties on that measure.
- Lincoln County 65%
- Otero County 59%
- Chaves County 45%
- Eddy County 41%
- Cibola County 29%