SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Washakie County, WY: Pockets of it

Pockets of it

Soluble rock at the surface or under thin cover in part of the county.

On soluble rock
26%
At or near the surface
26%
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 578 of Washakie County's 2,239 square miles on soluble rock, 578 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 7,662 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 283 map points about 2.8 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 Washakie County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Fall River County, SD, about 213 miles east. 4 of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so this is a regional pattern rather than a local quirk.

Which formation it is

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Tensleep Sandstone and Amsden Formation (sandstone), Upper Mississippian-Permian in age, covering about 9% of the county. Next is the Chugwater and Goose Egg Formations at 8%.

10% 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 Bighorn 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 Wyoming

Washakie County ranks 3 of 23 in Wyoming for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 78% of US counties on that measure.