SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Uintah County, UT: 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
4%
At or near the surface
4%
Buried under cover
0%

The next step for one property

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

That works out to roughly 197 of Uintah County's 4,483 square miles on soluble rock, 197 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 38,307 residents (9 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 363 map points about 3.5 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 how these percentages are measured.

Counties around Uintah County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Emery County, UT, about 100 miles southwest. 5 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 Permian (2) sedimentary rocks in Uinta Mountains-Uinta Basin region (sandstone), Permian in age, covering about 2% of the county. Next is the Mississippian (1) carbonate rocks in Uinta Mountains-Uinta Basin region at under 1%.

1% 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 Uinta 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 Utah

Uintah County ranks 24 of 29 in Utah for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 62% of US counties on that measure.