SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Upton 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
30%
At or near the surface
30%
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 367 of Upton County's 1,241 square miles on soluble rock, 367 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 3,128 residents (3 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 395 map points about 1.8 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 Upton County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Ector County, TX, about 46 miles northwest. 5 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

What Upton County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Fredericksburg Group (limestone), Early Cretaceous; Comanchean Series in age, covering about 10% of the county. Next is the Edwards Limestone at 10%.

7% 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

Upton County ranks 84 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 79% of US counties on that measure.