For the first time, the Colorado Geological highlighting areas across the state prone to sinkholes.
A scan of the map shows the largest ground formation hazards near Eagle County and Glenwood Springs. shows pictures of agricultural land, a golf course鈥攅ven part of Colorado Mountain College鈥檚 Roaring Fork campus with large ground depressions.
But Northern Colorado鈥攑articularly near Horsetooth Reservoir and Carter Lake in Larimer County鈥攈ave geologic conditions that have lead to ground depressions. Larimer County鈥檚 Red Mountain Open Space near Table Mountain has also seen sink holes in recent years.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to be doing any kind of construction in that Lykins Strike Valley, the dissolution and subsidence of the ground surface should be a consideration in whatever you鈥檙e proposing,鈥� says Jonathan White, senior engineering geologist with the Colorado Geological Survey.
At play is so-called 鈥渆vaporate bedrock,鈥� which starts dissolving--and causing ground depressions--when it鈥檚 exposed to fresh water.
White says that the map and an accompanying report provide a bird eye鈥檚 view of these geologic risks statewide. But for site-specific problems, the Geological Survey is urging landowners and planners to commission individual hazard studies.
