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Clifftop soil and landscape

Soil profile: A representative profile of the Clifftop series. Clifftop soils are moderately deep (50 to 100 cm) to bedrock. (Soil Survey of Gauley River National Recreation Area, West Virginia; by Aron Sattler and James Bell, Natural Resources Conservation Service)

archive.org/details/usda-soil-survey-of-gauley-river-nati...

 

Landscape: Hayland in an area of Clifftop channery silt loam, 3 to 8 percent slopes. This map unit qualifies as prime farmland.

 

Landscapes: Plateau and mountains

Landforms: Ridge, hillslope, mountain slope

MLRA(s): 127 (Eastern Allegheny Plateau and Mountains) and 125 (Cumberland Plateau and Mountains)

Geomorphic Component: Interfluves, side slopes, and nose slopes

Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, backslope

Parent Material: Residuum derived from of early Pennsylvania Period acid shale, siltstone, or fine-grained sandstone (members of the Pottsville Series or its analogue)

Depth Class: Moderately deep to soft bedrock

Slope: 3 to 70 percent

Elevation: 549 to 1067 m (1795 to 3500 feet)

Frost-free period: 140 to 180 days

 

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults

 

Depth to the top of the Argillic: 13 to 51 cm (5 to 20 inches)

Depth to the base of the Argillic: 30 to 91 cm (12 to 36 inches)

Depth to Bedrock: 51 to 102 cm (20 to 40 inches); bedrock is dominantly very weakly to moderately cemented shale, siltstone, or fine-grained sandstone of early Pennsylvanian Period age (members of the Pottsville Group or its analogue)

Rock Fragment content (by volume): 0 to 25 percent in the upper solum, 15 to 65 percent in the BC and C horizon.

Soil Reaction: strongly acid to extremely acid throughout, except where limed or affected by forest fires.

 

USE AND VEGETATION:

Major Uses: Woodland, pasture, and hay land, and minor urban development

Dominant Vegetation: Oak-hickory or mixed mesophytic forests.

Where wooded--scarlet, black, white, red, or chestnut oak, red maple, pignut or mockernut hickory, yellow poplar, American Holly, beech, and Virginia or white pine are the dominate species.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:

Distribution: West Virginia, and possibly; Kentucky, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

Extent: Moderate

 

The Clifftop series is limited to soils formed in materials weathered from early Pennsylvanian Period geologic parent materials (members of the Pottsville Group or its analogue).

 

For additional information about the survey area, visit:

www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/west_virginia/...

 

For a detailed description, visit:

soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CLIFFTOP.html

 

For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:

casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#clifftop

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Uploaded on February 28, 2011
Taken in January 2002