Sinkhole risk in Teller County, CO: No soluble rock mapped

No soluble rock mapped

No soluble bedrock mapped.

On soluble rock: under 1%
At or near the surface: under 1%
Buried under cover: 0%

The next step for one property

No soluble bedrock is mapped here, so natural sinkholes are unlikely. Collapses from broken pipes or old mines are a separate risk.

That works out to roughly 5 of Teller County's 557 square miles on soluble rock, 5 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 24,862 residents (45 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 321 map points about 1.3 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Two things to read before deciding: how these percentages are measured, and the warning signs that apply anywhere.

Counties around Teller County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Dawes County, NE, about 286 miles north. 1 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band; the ground changes quickly around here.

Fremont County, CO 31 mi southwest · 12% at surface
Park County, CO 33 mi northwest · 13% at surface
Douglas County, CO 34 mi northeast · 1% at surface
El Paso County, CO 36 mi east · 2% at surface
Jefferson County, CO 49 mi north · 2% at surface
Custer County, CO 54 mi south · under 1% at surface

What Teller County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Manitou Limestone and Sawatch Quartzite in Southern Front Range and Wet Mountains. One or more Ordovician Fms (Fremont Limestone, Harding Sandstone, and Manitou Dolomite), Dotsero Fm, Peerless Fm, and Sawatch Quartzite in west-ce (limestone), Ordovician-Cambrian in age, covering about under 1% of the county.

Against the rest of Colorado

Teller County ranks 33 of 64 in Colorado for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 55% of US counties on that measure.