SinkholeOdds

Sinkhole risk in Wheeler 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
25%
At or near the surface
25%
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 224 of Wheeler County's 915 square miles on soluble rock, 224 of them with the rock at or near the surface. With about 4,824 residents (5 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 396 map points about 1.5 miles apart, so a pocket smaller than that can be missed or overstated.

Read next: why gypsum and salt move faster than limestone, and the signs to look for and how an inspection works.

Counties around Wheeler County

The nearest county rated sinkhole country is Collingsworth County, TX, about 30 miles south, close enough that the same rock may run under the county line. None of the 6 closest counties land in the same band, so Wheeler County stands out from its surroundings.

What Wheeler County is built on

The largest mapped soluble unit here is the Quartermaster Formation and Whitehorse Group, undivided (mixed clastic/carbonate), Permian; Guadalupe Series in age, covering about 17% of the county. Next is the Blaine Formation at 8%.

25% 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

Wheeler County ranks 93 of 254 in Texas for soluble rock at the surface, and sits above 77% of US counties on that measure.