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Chestnut soil series

A profile of Chestnut gravelly fine sandy loam in an area of Chestnut-Peaks complex, 8 to 25 percent slopes, very rocky. (Soil Survey of Surry County, North Carolina; by Roger J. Leab, Natural Resources Conservation Service)

 

Landscape: Low and intermediate mountains and occasionally intermountain hills

Landform: Mountain slope, hillslopes, and ridges

Geomorphic Component: Mountain top, mountain flank, side slope, and interfluves

Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, and backslope

Parent Material Origin: Felsic or mafic igneous or high-grade metamorphic rocks such as granite gneiss, granodiorite, biotite gneiss, and high-grade metagraywacke.

Parent Material Kind: Residuum that is affected by soil creep in the upper solum.

Slope: Typically 15 to 95 percent, but range from 2 to 95 percent.

Elevation: 427 to 1524 meters; (1,400 to 5,000 feet)

 

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts

 

Solum Thickness: 38 to 99 cm (15 to 39 inches)

Depth to Bedrock: 51 to 102 cm (20 to 40 inches) to weathered bedrock (paralithic); greater than 152 cm (60 inches) to unweathered bedrock (lithic).

Depth Class: Moderately Deep

Rock Fragment content: 0 to 35 percent, by volume, but typically less than 20 percent throughout the profile.

Soil Reaction: Extremely acid to moderately acid, except where limed

Content of Mica: 0 to 20 percent, by volume mica flakes throughout

 

USE AND VEGETATION:

Major Uses: Woodland, less often pasture, hayland, and rarely cultivated crops.

Dominant Vegetation: Where wooded--scarlet oak, chestnut oak, white oak, black oak, hickory, eastern white pine, and Virginia pine. Yellow poplar and northern red oak occur in the north central mountains of MLRA 130-B. Understory species are dominantly mountain laurel, flowering dogwood, sourwood, chestnut sprouts, and buffalo nut. Where cleared--used for pasture and hay.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:

Distribution: Southern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130-B) of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Extent: Large--more than 100,000 acres.

 

Chestnut soils were previously mapped with the Ashe series. Field studies indicate that Chestnut soils have significantly higher forest productivity than Ashe soils. Both Chestnut and Ashe soils are moderately deep to soft bedrock; however, Ashe soils have hard bedrock within 40 inches.

 

For additional information about the survey area, visit:

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

 

For a detailed soil description, visit:

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

 

For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:

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

 

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Uploaded on March 18, 2011
Taken in January 2000