SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Scurry 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
41%
At or near the surface
41%
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 368 of Scurry County's 905 square miles on soluble rock, 368 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 16,211 residents (18 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 387 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 Scurry County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Fisher County, TX, about 30 miles east, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

The rock underneath

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Dockum Group, undivided (fine-grained mixed clastic), Late Triassic in age, covering about 33% of the county. Next is the Quartermaster Formation at 7%.

8% 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

Scurry County ranks 63 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 84% of US counties on that measure.