View allAll Photos Tagged soilsampling
Landscape: Hills
Landform: Hill and hillslope
Anthropogenic Features: Dump, spoil pile and spoil bank
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, backslope, footslope and toeslope
Geomorphic Component: Crest, head slope, side slope and base slope
Parent Material: Coal extraction mine spoil derived from acid regolith, mainly carboliths (high carbon content rocks) of mine waste rock
Slope: 0 to 90 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, acid, mesic Typic Udorthents
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 152 cm (60 inches)
Depth Class: Very deep
Rock Fragment Content: 15 to 80 percent, by volume, but averages 35 percent or more in the particle-size control section
Rock Fragment Size: 2 mm to 25 cm, but can include stones and boulders
Rock Fragment Type: Carboliths constitute more than 50 percent of the rock fragment volume, with siltstone, shale and sandstone making up the remainder
Fine-Earth Fraction: 4 to 15 percent clay in the control section
Soil Reaction: Extremely acid through strongly acid, except where limed
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Wildlife habitat and recreational areas.
Dominant Vegetation: These soils are generally barren, but they can support sparse grasses and legumes if the area has been "topsoiled".
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia; Extent: Moderate
Itmann soils were previously mapped as a variety of strip mine spoil and udorthents units. Carbolith is a name coined at West Virginia University to describe dark colored sedimentary rocks that will make a black or very dark (Munsell color value of 3 or less) streak or powder. Rocks under this name include coal not scheduled for mining, impure waste coal, bone coal, high carbon siltstones and high carbon shales.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/I/ITMANN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the series. These very poorly drained soils formed in organic deposits underlain by sandy marine sediments. They are in old lake basins and backswamps and on flood plains. (Soil Survey of Cumberland County, New Jersey; by Lenore Matula Vasilas, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Very poorly drained
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity: Moderately high to high in the organic layers and high in the mineral layers
Landscape: Coastal Plain
Parent Material: Organic deposits underlain by sandy fluviomarine sediments
Slope: 0 to 2 percent
Mean Annual Air Temperature (type location): 13 degrees C. (56 degrees F.)
Mean Annual Precipitation (type location): 1143 mm (45 inches)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy or sandy-skeletal, siliceous, dysic, mesic Terric Haplosaprists
Thickness of the Underlying Material: Greater than 183 cm (72 inches)
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 152 cm (60 inches)
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: +30 to 0 cm (+12 to 0 inches), January to December
Depth to Mineral Horizons: 41 to 130 cm (16 to 51 inches)
Rock Fragments: 0 to 50 percent, by volume in the Cg horizon, mostly fine pebbles
Soil Reaction: Extremely acid or very strongly acid in the surface tier and very strongly acid or strongly acid in the lower tiers and in the mineral substratum
Other Features: Mineral content of organic layers ranges from 5 to 80 percent. Organic layers consist of mostly sapric material. Some pedons have subhorizons or a surface horizon of hemic material up to 25 cm (10 inches) thick. Woody fragments range from 0 to 50 percent, by volume, in the organic layers. These fragments are mostly twigs, branches, or logs ranging in size from 3 mm to 51 cm (1/8 inch to 20 inches) in diameter and completely break down when rubbed or crushed.
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Wetland wildlife habitat, and woodland
Dominant Vegetation: Atlantic white cedar, bald cypress, pitch pine, red maple, blackgum, sweetgum, swamp chestnut oak, water oak, smooth alder, northern white cedar, sweet bay (swamp magnolia). The understory is high-bush blueberry, sweet pepperbush, leather leaf, gallberry, arrowwood, green briar, American holly, ferns, sedges, grasses and mosses. Some areas are cultivated to cranberries and blueberries
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: The coastal plain of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and possibly Pennsylvania.
Extent: Large--more than 120,000 acres.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/new_jersey/NJ0...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MANAHAWKIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
In both the FAO soil classification and the USDA soil taxonomy, a histosol is a soil consisting primarily of organic materials. They are defined as having 40 centimetres (16 in) or more of organic soil material in the upper 80 centimetres (31 in). Organic soil material has an organic carbon content (by weight) of 12 to 18 percent, or more, depending on the clay content of the soil. These materials include muck (sapric soil material), mucky peat (hemic soil material), or peat (fibric soil material). Typically, histosols have very low bulk density and are poorly drained because the organic matter holds water very well. Most are acidic and many are very deficient in major plant nutrients which are washed away in the consistently moist soil. Histosols are known by various other names in other countries, such as peat or muck.
For more information on Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class/
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
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:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Cedarhill gravelly silt loam in an area of Cedarhill-Clegg-Drage, 5 to 55 percent slopes. (Soil Survey of Bear Lake County Area, Idaho; by Francis R. Kukachka, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Typical vegetation on map Cedarhill-Clegg-Drage
complex, 5 to 55 percent slopes. Range site: R013XYOO1ID; Loamy 12-16 ARTRV/PSSPS-FEID
The Cedarhill series consists of very deep, well drained soils on mountain slopes and ridges, foothills, and terraces. They formed in alluvium and colluvium derived from limestone and related sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks. Permeability is moderate. Slopes range from 4 to 60 percent. The mean annual precipitation is 15 inches and the mean annual temperature is 44 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, frigid Typic Calcixerolls
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used mainly for rangeland, wildlife habitat, watershed, and cropland. Important native plants are Utah juniper, mountain big sagebrush, arrowleaf balsamroot, bluebunch wheatgrass, and Indian ricegrass. The dominant crops are dryland wheat and alfalfa.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mountainous areas of southeastern Idaho. This series is of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/idaho/bearlake...
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CEDARHILL.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Moderately well drained or somewhat poorly drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Shallow to moderately deep, common, thick
Flooding Frequency and Duration: None or occasional, rare, or very rare for very brief periods
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None
Index Surface Runoff: Low to high
Permeability: Moderately slow
Shrink-Swell Potential: Moderate
Landscape: Piedmont
Landform: Stream terrace
Geomorphic Component: Riser, tread
Hillslope Profile Position: None
Parent Material: Clayey alluvium
Slope: 0 to 15 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Hapludults
Thickness of the sandy surface and subsurface layers: 3 to 19 inches
Depth to top of the Argillic or Kandic horizon: 3 to 19 inches
Depth to the base of the Argillic horizon: 35 to 80
Depth to contrasting soil material (lithologic discontinuity): 35 to more than 80 inches
Depth to densic materials: 40 to more than 60 inches
Soil reaction: Extremely acid to strongly acid throughout, except where limed
Mica content: 0 to 20 percent
Depth to bedrock: Greater than 80 inches
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: 40 to 60 inches, November to April
Rock Fragment content: 0 to 35 percent, by volume throughout
Content of mica: None to 20 percent
Other Feature: 40 to 60 inches to a densic BC horizon with firm or very firm moist consistence
Major Uses: About one-half of the total acreage is in cultivation with the remainder in woodland.
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--principal crops are corn, small grain, and soybeans. Where wooded--mixed
hardwoods and pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Virginia and North Carolina
Extent: Moderate
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BANISTER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Fig. 5.29 Lithic Torriorthents (AD150) UAE
Torriorthents are the dry Orthents of cool to hot, arid regions. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are on moderate to very steep slopes. A few are on gentle slopes. Many of the gently sloping soils are on rock pediments, are very shallow, have a sandy-skeletal particle-size class, or are salty. Others are on fans where sediments are recent but have little organic carbon. The vegetation on Torriorthents commonly is sparse and consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs and ephemeral grasses and forbs. The vegetation on a few of the soils is saltgrass.
Orthents are primarily on recent erosional surfaces. The erosion may be geologic or may have been induced by cultivation, mining, or other factors. Any former soil that was on the landscape has been completely removed or so truncated that the diagnostic horizons for all other orders do not occur.
Lithic Torriorthents have lithic contact within 50 cm of the soil surface. Lithic contact is a boundary between soil and continuous, coherent, underlying material. The underlying material must be sufficiently coherent to make hand-digging with a spade impractical. The material below a lithic contact must be in a strongly cemented or more cemented rupture-resistance class. Commonly, the material is indurated.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Posey series. The Posey series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in calcareous, loamy eolian deposits from the Blackwater Draw Formation of Pleistocene age. These soils are on nearly level to strongly sloping plains, playa slopes, and draws. Slope ranges from 0 to 12 percent. The mean annual precipitation is 483 mm (19 in) and the mean annual temperature is 16 degrees C (61 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Calcidic Paleustalfs
Note: The kk feature is defined as pedogenic carbonate accumulation that is characterized by laterally continuous carbonates that have engulfed rock, sand, silt, and clay particles; plugged the macroporosity of the soil horizon with 50 percent or more calcium carbonate; and obliterated the original soil structure.
Soil moisture: An ustic moisture regime bordering on aridic. The soil moisture control section is dry in some or all parts for more than 180 but less than 220 days, cumulative, in normal years. July through August and December through February are the driest months. These soils are intermittently moist in September through November and March through June.
Mean annual soil temperature: 15 to 18 degrees C (59 to 64 degrees F).
Depth to secondary calcium carbonate: 13 to 25 cm (5 to 10 in).
Depth to calcic horizon: 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 in).
Solum thickness: more than 203 cm (80 in).
Surface fragments: 0 to 5 percent, gravel size, strongly cemented carbonate nodules.
Particle-size control section: 18 to 35 percent silicate clay.
USE AND VEGETATION: Widely used for dryland and irrigated crop production. Principal crops grown are cotton, grain sorghum, and wheat. Climax native vegetation is mainly mid and short grasses and includes blue grama, sideoats grama, and buffalograss, with lesser amounts of vine-mesquite, western wheatgrass, galleta or tobosa, silver bluestem, wild alfalfa, and prairieclover with a light to moderate overstory of mesquite. This soil has been correlated to the High Lime (R077CY026TX) ecological site in MLRA-77C.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern High Plains, Southern Part (MLRA 77C in LRR H) of west Texas and eastern New Mexico. The series is of moderate extent.
This is a Benchmark Series. A benchmark soil is one of large extent within one or more major land resource areas (MLRAs), one that holds a key position in the soil classification system, one for which there is a large amount of data, one that has special importance to one or more significant land uses, or one that is of significant ecological importance. Posey soil were formerly included in the Mansker and Veal series.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/P/POSEY.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: A representative profile of Grandmore loamy sand, 0 to 3 percent. A lithologic discontinuity occurs at a depth of below 125 centimeters. (Soil Survey of Greer County, Oklahoma; by Richard F. Gelnar, Clay D. Salisbury, and Randall Miller; Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landcsape: A typical landscape of Grandmore and Grandfield loamy sands, 0 to 3 percent slopes growing alfalfa hay.
The Grandmore series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, moderately slowly permeable soils. These soils formed in loamy alluvium of Pleistocene age. These nearly level to very gently sloping soils are on stream terraces in the Central Rolling Red Plains (MLRA 78). Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 62 degrees F., and mean annual precipitation is about 25 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, thermic Typic Haplustalfs
Particle-size control section (weighted average)
Clay content: 18 to 35 percent
CEC/clay ratio: 0.4 to 0.6
Thickness of the solum: 60 to more than 80 inches
Depth to a discontinuity (with an increase in clay content): 30 to 60 inches
Depth to episaturation: 40 to 60 inches
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly as cropland. Wheat, grain sorghum, cotton, alfalfa, improved bermudagrass, and weeping lovegrass are the principal crops. Native vegetation is mid and tall grasses.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central Rolling Red Plains of western Oklahoma and Texas; LRR H; MLRA 78; Moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/oklahoma/OK055...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/G/GRANDMORE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Anakeesta series consists of deep, well drained soils on moderately steep to very steep summits and side slopes in the high elevations of the Southern Blue Ridge mountains, MLRA 130B. (Soil Survey of Graham County, North Carolina; by Brian Wood and Southern Blue Ridge Soil Survey Office, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
These soils formed in residuum that is affected by soil creep in the upper part, and weathered from low-grade metasedimentary rocks, primarily slate. Slope ranges from 15 to 95 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, isotic, frigid Humic Dystrudepts
Solum thickness and depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Reaction is extremely acid to strongly acid. Content of rock fragments ranges from 15 percent to 75 percent by volume in the A, BA, and upper Bw horizons, and 50 to 80 percent by volume in the lower Bw horizons.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the acreage is in public ownership and is used for watershed protection, recreation, and wildlife habitat. In areas higher than about 5,400 feet, red spruce and fraser fir are the dominant trees. At the lower elevations, northern red oak, black oak, American beech, yellow birch, black cherry, sugar maple, eastern hemlock, and yellow buckeye are common trees. Common understory plants are serviceberry, striped maple, American chestnut sprouts, silverbell, pin cherry, rhododendron, flame azalea, and blueberry. Common forbs are hay-scented fern, woodfern, New York fern, Solomons seal, yellow mandarin, and trillium. Acreage covered by heath balds is vegetated with rhododendron, mountain laurel, blueberry, flame azalea, hawthorn, and mountain ash.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Higher elevations of the Southern Blue Ridge mountains, MLRA 130B of Tennessee and North Carolina. This series is of moderate extent. Although Anakeesta soils may exhibit some of the characteristics of andic soil properties, they lack the volcanic glass found in soils of similar taxa in the Western United States.
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/A/ANAKEESTA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A truck-mounted hydraulic probe used to quickly obtain soil profiles. The Giddings probe (shown) has the ability to collect a large- or small-diameter core sample, and extensions can be added to it for deep coring. Driver’s side-mounted bull probes are preferred in some areas but are limited to collection of smaller diameter core samples. (Photo courtesy of Casey Latta)
A soil scientist examines the soil often in the course of mapping. Examination of both horizontal and vertical variations is essential. The most commonly used tools are spades and soil augers. Augers are used in most areas for routine mapping. In some areas, however, a spade is used to examine the soil. In soils with no rock fragments, samples can be collected quickly and relatively easily using truck-mounted or hand-operated probes.
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Tomlin series in Iredell County. Tomlin soils are well drained and have a
dark red clayey subsoil. ((Soil Survey of Iredell County, North Carolina; by Robert H. Ranson, Jr., and Roger J. Leab, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Tomlin soils are on interfluves, side slopes, nose slopes of ridges and hills in Piedmont uplands. They are commonly used for cultivated crops, pasture, and as woodland.
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Very deep
Flooding Frequency and Duration: None
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None
Index Surface Runoff: Very low to high
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity: Moderately high (Permeability: Moderate)
Shrink-swell Potential: Low
Landscape: Piedmont uplands
Landform: Hills, ridge
Geomorphic Component: Interfluves, side slopes, nose slopes
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, backslope
Parent Material: Residuum from intermingled felsic or intermediate, igneous and high-grade metamorphic rock such as amphibolite, granodiorite, biotite schist, or biotite gneiss
Slope: 2 to 50 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, mesic Rhodic Kanhapludults
NOTE: Tomlin soils were previously mapped as Lloyd soils (Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Rhodic Kanhapludults). The April 1997 relocation of the mesic/thermic line in North Carolina and Virginia necessitated the establishment of the Tomlin series as a mesic counterpart to Lloyd. Tomlin soils are commonly associated with Clifford soils (fine, kaolinitic, mesic Typic Kanhapludults). Clifford soils formed in residuum weathered from felsic crystalline rock and have B horizons with hue of 5YR or redder with moist value of 4 or more. Tomlin soils formed in mixed felsic to mafic crystalline rock (primarily amphibolite) and have B horizons with hue of 2.5YR or redder with moist value of less than 4.
Depth to top of argillic or kandic horizon: 2 to 20 inches
Depth to base of argillic or kandic horizon: More than 25 inches
Depth to bedrock: Greater than 80 inches
Depth to seasonal high water table: Greater than 72 inches
Rock Fragment Content: 0 to 35 percent in the A and E horizons and 0 to 15 percent in the B and C horizons; mostly gravel and cobbles
Soil Reaction: Very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout, unless limed.
Mica content: 0 to 20 percent, by volume mica flakes in the A, B, and 0 to 50 percent by volume in the BC and C horizon
Major Uses: Cultivated crops, pasture, and forest
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--small grains, corn, soybeans, hay, tobacco, and orchards. Where forested--Eastern white pine, Virginia pine, red oak, white oak, post oak, hickory, blackgum, red maple, yellow poplar, and dogwood
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Virginia and North Carolina
Extent: Moderate
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/T/TOMLIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of Carbengle sandy clay loam, 3 to 5 percent slopes. Sandstone occurs at a depth of about 80 centimeters. (Soil Survey of Colorado County, Texas; by Samuel E. Brown, Jr., Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Carbengle series consists of moderately deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils formed in residuum weathered from calcareous sandstone in Fleming and Oakville formations of Miocene age. These gently to strongly sloping soils occur on summits of interfluves and backslopes of side slopes of ridges on inland dissected coastal plain. Slopes range from 1 to 12 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 1016 mm (40 in) and the mean annual temperature is about 20 degrees C (68 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, carbonatic, thermic Udic Calciustolls
Depth of solum: 50 to 100 cm (20 to 40 in)
Soil moisture: Udic ustic soil moisture regime. The soil moisture control section is dry in some or all parts for four-tenths or less of the consecutive days per year when the soil temperature at a depth of 50 cm below the soil surface is higher than 5 degrees C and moist in some part either for more than 180 cumulative days per year or for 90 or more consecutive days in normal years.
Depth to paralithic contact: 50 to 100 cm (20 to 40 in)
Depth to secondary calcium carbonate: 18 to 46 cm (7 to 18 in)
Depth to calcic horizon: 18 to 46 cm (7 to 18 in)
Thickness of the mollic epipedon: 18 to 46 cm (7 to 18 in)
Particle-size control section (weighted average):
Clay content: 18 to 35 percent
Calcium carbonate equivalent: 40 to 75 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: The major uses are livestock grazing and hay production. A few areas are used for crop production. Improved bermudagrass and corn are the principal crops. Native vegetation consists of a tall grass prairie of little bluestem, indiangrass, and big bluestem with a few large post oak, elm, and hackberry trees along the draws and in occasional motts. Numerous other grasses and a variety of forbs occur in the native plant community.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: South Central Texas; Land Resource Region J; MLRA 86B. The series is extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX089/0/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CARBENGLE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Cerrado was thought challenging for agriculture until researchers at Brazil’s agricultural and livestock research agency, Embrapa, discovered that it could be made fit for industrial crops by appropriate additions of phosphorus and lime. In the late 1990s, between 14 million and 16 million tons of lime were being poured on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tons in 2003 and 2004, equalling around five tons of lime per hectare. This manipulation of the soil allowed for industrial agriculture to grow exponentially in the area. Researchers also developed tropical varieties of soybeans, until then a temperate crop, and currently, Brazil is the world's main soyabeans exporter due to the boom in animal feed production caused by the global rise in meat demand. Today the Cerrado region provides more than 70% of the beef cattle production in the country, being also a major production center of grains, mainly soya, beans, maize and rice. Large extensions of the Cerrado are also used for the production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, with the cultivation of several species of Eucalyptus and Pinus, but as a secondary activity. Coffee produced in the Cerrado is now a major export.
Soils of the cerrado are in the order of Oxisols. Oxisols are an order in USDA soil taxonomy, best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest, 15-25 degrees north and south of the Equator. They are classified as ferralsols in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources; some oxisols have been previously classified as laterite soils.The main processes of soil formation of oxisols are weathering, humification and pedoturbation due to animals. These processes produce the characteristic soil profile. They are defined as soils containing at all depths no more than 10 percent weatherable minerals, and low cation exchange capacity. Oxisols are always a red or yellowish color, due to the high concentration of iron(III) and aluminium oxides and hydroxides. In addition they also contain quartz and kaolin, plus small amounts of other clay minerals and organic matter.
For more information on Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class/
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
www.flickr.com/photos/soilscience/sets/72157622983226139/
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
A representative soil profile of the Hilo series; the State Soil of Hawaii. (Photos provided by Amy Koch, USDA-NRCS)
The Hilo series was established in 1949 and was first mapped in Soil Survey of the Territory of Hawaii published in 1955. The Hilo series occurs on the Island of Hawaii, to the north of the town of Hilo. The Hilo soils are derived from volcanic ash and occur on the wet, rainy side of Mauna Kea volcano.
The Hilo series consists of deep, well drained soils that formed in material weathered from volcanic ash. Hilo soils are on ashfields and have slopes of 0 to 35 percent. The mean annual rainfall is about 3683 millimeters (145 inches) and the mean annual temperature is 22 degrees C (72 degrees F) or higher.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Medial over hydrous, ferrihydritic, isohyperthermic Acrudoxic Hydrudands
Depth to bedrock: 112 to over 152 centimeters (44 inches to over 60 inches).
Soil moisture: The soil is typically moist but there may be occasional brief periods of dryness in the surface from 0 to 30 centimeters (0 to 12 inches) during the driest months of the year, usually June thru August.
Rock fragments: 0 to 20 percent cobbles in the first 102 centimeters (40 inches)
Soil temperature: 22 degrees C (72 degrees F) or higher
Surface fragments: 0 to 10 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for forest, wildlife habitat, building site development, recreation, orchard crops, agroforestry, and livestock grazing. Common vegetation is hilograss (Paspalum conjugatum), guinea grass (Urochloa maxima), California grass (Urochloa mutica) and strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum).
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: This series is along the Hamakua coast on the island of Hawaii. This series is moderately extensive with a total of about 30,000 acres.
For additional information about this state soil, visit:
www.soils4teachers.org/files/s4t/k12outreach/hi-state-soi...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/H/HILO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Segno series in Texas (Soil Survey of Liberty County, Texas; by Kirby L. Griffith, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Segno series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in loamy fluviomarine deposits of Pleistocene age. Slopes range from 1 to 5 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 20 degrees C (68 degrees F), and mean annual precipitation is about 1215 mm (48 in). (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Paleudalfs
Note: The majority of the Segno soils are mapped over the Lissie Formation. At the time of survey publication, Segno soils were classified in a "plinthic" subgroup; however, subsequent studies show soils associated with the Lissie Formation typically have less than 5 percent plinthite.
Soil Moisture: An udic soil moisture regime. The soil moisture control section is 10 to 30 cm (4 to 12 in) below the soil surface and remains dry less than 90 cumulative days in most years.
Mean annual soil temperature: 20.6 to 21.7 degrees C (69 to 71 degrees F)
Particle-size control section (weighted average)
Clay content: 18 to 31 percent
CEC/clay ratio: .25 to 0.35
USE AND VEGETATION: Soils are mostly used for pasture and forest. Pastures are mainly bermudagrass. Small areas are used for growing corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, peaches, melons, and other vegetable crops. Forest vegetation includes loblolly, shortleaf, slash and longleaf pines, sweetgum, red oak, hickory, dogwood, and holly trees. Current ecological site assignments are in Web Soil Survey. Components of this series include the following ecological sites: Loamy Upland
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
General location: Western Coastal Plain from Texas to Louisiana
Land Resource Region: T (Atlantic and Gulf Coast Lowland Forest and Crop Region)
Major Land Resource Area: 150A (Gulf Coast Prairies)
Extent: large
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/libertyT...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SEGNO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A typical profile of Etowah gravelly silt loam. (Soil Survey of Cannon County, Tennessee; by Jerry L. Prater, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Etowah series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on high stream terraces, alluvial fans and foot slopes. These soils formed in alluvium or colluvium that is commonly underlain by limestone residuum below 40 inches. The slopes range from 0 to 35 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Paleudults
The solum is more than 60 inches thick. Depth to bedrock, commonly limestone, ranges from 6 to 15 feet or more. Coarse fragments are commonly less than 5 percent, but range from 0 to 15 percent in each horizon, except the A horizon ranges to 20 percent. Some pedons contain some fine mica flakes. Reaction is strongly acid or very strongly acid except the surface layer is less acid in recently limed areas.
USE AND VEGETATION: Practically all is cleared and used primarily for growing hay, pasture, corn, and small grain. Original vegetation was oaks, hickory, tulip poplar, elm, beech, and shortleaf, and Virginia pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Highland Rim, and Southern Appalachian Ridges and Valleys of Tennessee; northwestern Georgia, northern Alabama and Maryland. The series is of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/tennessee/cann...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/E/ETOWAH.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Grava series. (Soil Survey of Duval County, Texas; by John L. Sackett III, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Grava series consists of soils that are moderately deep to a petrocalcic. They are well drained, moderately slowly permeable soils that formed in residuum derived from deposits of the Uvalde Gravel over the Goliad Formation. These nearly level to strongly sloping soils are on uplands. Slope ranges from 0 to 8 percent. Mean annual air temperature is about 22 degrees C (73 degrees F), and annual precipitation is about 610 mm (24 in).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey-skeletal, smectitic, hyperthermic Petrocalcic Paleustolls
Soil Moisture: The soil moisture control section (SMCS) remains moist in some or all parts for less than 90 consecutive days per year during the months of July through August and March through May. The SMCS is driest during the months June through September and December through February. Aridic/ustic moisture regime.
Mean annual soil temperature: 21 to 24 degrees C (72 to 75 degrees F)
Depth to argillic horizon: 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 in)
Depth to petrocalcic horizon: 51 to 102 cm (20 to 40 in)
Clay content of the particle-size control section: 40 to 60 percent
Coarse Fragments: 35 to 80 percent, and increase with increasing depth
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. Native woody vegetation includes black brush, mountain laurel, mesquite, hog plum, cenezo, guayacan, prickly pear, coyotillo, amagosa and catclaw. Grass species include sideoats grama, buffalograss, perennial threeawn, Arizona cottontop, plains bristlegrass, and hooded windmillgrass. The ecological site is Gravelly Ridge, PE 19-44 (R083CY454TX).
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central Rio Grande Plain of Texas; LRR I; MLRA 83C; minor extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX131/Du...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/G/GRAVA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Chris Grose (Mapping Crew Leader) for Abu Dhabi Soil Survey. Chris is a soil scientist with over 30 years’ experience in soil mapping and land evaluation much of it in Tasmania. Originally from the UK, Chris arrived in Australia after spending several years investigating soils in Papua New Guinea. He has also worked in Kuwait, Israel, the Philippines and in the United Arab Emirates.
Parent material is the underlying geological material (generally bedrock or a superficial or drift deposit) in which soil horizons form. Soils typically inherit a great deal of structure and minerals from their parent material, and, as such, are often classified based upon their contents of consolidated or unconsolidated mineral material that has undergone some degree of physical or chemical weathering and the mode by which the materials were most recently transported.
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
A soil profile of a moderately deep Brownstown silt loam. (Soil Survey of Clark County, Indiana; by Byron G. Nagel and Dena L. Marshall, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Brownstown series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils that formed in residuum from siltstone on hills and knobs. Slopes range from 15 to 75 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 109 cm (43 inches), and mean annual temperature is about 12 degrees C (54 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
Depth to the base of the cambic horizon: 30 to 61 cm (12 to 24 inches)
Depth to a lithic contact: 51 to 102 cm (20 to 40 inches)
Rock fragments: dominantly channers, but include flagstones, and are strongly or very strongly cemented Rock fragments in the particle-size control section average: 35 to 65 percent
Particle-size control section: less than 15 percent fine and coarser sand (less than 5 percent coarse and very coarse sand) in the fine-earth fraction
USE AND VEGETATION: Almost all areas are in mixed oak-hickory forest, the native vegetation.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: This series is of moderate extent in MLRA 120C. Brownstown soils are in south-eastern and south-central Indiana. Brownstown soils were previously correlated as the Berks series in MLRA 120C in Indiana.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/indiana/IN019/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BROWNSTOWN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: Dekalb very channery loam. This Dekalb soil, which formed under forests, has dark organic horizons at a depth of 0 to 10 centimeters. Dekalb soils have bedrock at a depth of 50 to 100 centimeters. In this photo, bedrock occurs at a depth of approximately 70 centimeters. (Soil Survey of New River Gorge National River, West Virginia; by Wendy Noll and James Bell, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of a Layland-Dekalb-Rock outcrop complex, 55 to 80 percent slopes, extremely stony. The extremely stony Layland soil is in the foreground, and the Dekalb soils and Rock outcrop are in the background.
Layland-Dekalb-Rock outcrop complex, 55 to 80 percent slopes, extremely stony
Map Unit Setting
Major land resource area (MLRA): 127—Eastern Allegheny Plateau and Mountains
Landscape: Mountains
Elevation: 250 to 874 meters
Mean annual precipitation: 1,034 to 1,289 millimeters
Mean annual air temperature: 5 to 17 degrees C
Frost-free period: 141 to 190 days
Map Unit Composition
Layland and similar soils: 45 percent
Dekalb and similar soils: 30 percent
Rock outcrop: 10 percent
Dissimilar minor components: 15 percent
Description of the Dekalb Soil
Soil Classification: Loamy-skeletal, siliceous, semiactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
Setting
Landform: Convex mountain slopes
Landform position (two-dimensional): Shoulder and backslope
Landform position (three-dimensional): Mountain flank and nose slope
Down-slope shape: Convex
Across-slope shape: Convex
Aspect (representative): Southwest
Aspect range: All aspects
Slope range: 55 to 80 percent
Parent material: Acid loamy residuum weathered from sandstone
Properties and Qualities
Depth to restrictive feature: 51 to 102 centimeters to lithic bedrock
Shrink-swell potential: Low (about 2.1 LEP)
Salinity maximum based on representative value: Nonsaline
Sodicity maximum: Not sodic
Calcium carbonate equivalent percent: No carbonates
Hydrologic Properties
Slowest capacity to transmit water (Ksat ): High
Natural drainage class: Well drained
Flooding frequency: None
Ponding frequency: None
Seasonal water table: None within a depth of 160 centimeters
Available water capacity (entire profile): Moderate (about 8.0 centimeters)
Interpretive Groups
Land capability subclass (nonirrigated areas): 7s
West Virginia grassland suitability group (WVGSG): Not Suited (NS)
Dominant vegetation map class(es):
Oak - Hickory Forest
Oak / Ericad Forest
Eastern Hemlock - Chestnut Oak / Catawba Rhododendron Forest
Hydric soil status: No
Hydrologic soil group: A
Representative Profile
A—very channery highly organic sandy loam
Bw—very channery loam
BC—extremely channery loam
R—bedrock
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/D/DEKALB.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Harvesting wheat in an area of Estacado clay loam, 0 to 1 percent slopes. (Soil Survey of Deaf Smith County, Texas by Thomas C. Byrd, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Map Unit Setting
General location: Southern High Plains of western Texas and eastern New Mexico
Major land resource area: 77C
Geomorphic setting: These soils are on nearly level plains and occur mainly around or adjacent to playa basins.
Map Unit Composition
Estacado and similar soils: 85 percent
Contrasting soils: 15 percent
Based on transect data and other field observations of the map unit during the survey, the best estimate is that the Estacado soil and similar soils make up 90 percent of the map unit, and contrasting soils make up 10 percent.
The soils similar to Estacado are small areas of Olton, Pantex, and Pullman soils that occur on similar landscape positions. Also included are small areas of Estacado soils that have a surface layer of loam or have slopes of 1 to 3 percent.
Soil Description
Estacado
Landscape: Plateaus or tablelands
Landform: Plain
Parent material: Calcareous, loamy eolian sediments from the Blackwater Draw
Formation of Pleistocene age.
Typical Profile
Ap—0 to 6 inches; dark grayish brown, moderately alkaline clay loam; strongly effervescent
Bt1—6 to 19 inches; brown, moderately alkaline clay loam; about 1 percent masses of calcium carbonate; strongly effervescent
Bt2—19 to 38 inches; brown, moderately alkaline clay loam; about 2 percent nodules of calcium carbonate; strongly effervescent
Btk1—38 to 50 inches; pink, moderately alkaline clay loam; about 40 percent films and masses of calcium carbonate; violently effervescent
Btk2—50 to 80 inches; pinkish white, moderately alkaline clay loam; about 35 percent masses and nodules of calcium carbonate; violently effervescent
Slope: 0 to 1 percent
Surface features: None specified
Percent of area covered by surface fragments: None specified
Depth to restrictive feature: None
Slowest permeability class in the soil profile: Moderate
Salinity: Not saline within 40 inches
Sodicity: Not sodic within 40 inches
Available water capacity: About 9.2 inches (High)
Natural drainage class: Well drained
Runoff: Negligible
Annual flooding: None
Annual ponding: Not ponded
Depth to seasonal high water table: Not present within 80 inches
Interpretive Groups
Land capability nonirrigated: 3e
Land capability irrigated: 2e
Ecological site name: Deep Hardland PE 25-36
Ecological site number: R077CY022TX
Typical vegetation: The potential natural plant community for this site is shortgrass dominant with a few midgrasses and forbs. Very few shrubs or woody plants occur on this shortgrass prairie. The most prevalent grasses are blue grama and buffalograss with blue grama being dominant.
Use and Management
Major land uses: These soils are primarily used for cropland. A few areas are used as improved pasture or rangeland.
Cropland management: This soil is well suited to cropland. The most common crops grown are wheat, grain sorghum, corn, and cotton. Other crops include soybeans and forage sorghum. The hazard of wind erosion is severe. The main concerns in management are conserving soil moisture and controlling soil erosion. Fertilizer applications, reduced tillage, high-residue cover crops, and crop residue
management can help reduce the soil temperature, conserve moisture, and improve or maintain soil tilth and productivity. Terraces, contour farming, grassed waterways, and diversion terraces, where needed, can help control runoff and water erosion. Improved varieties of bermudagrass and bluestems are the major pasture grasses grown on these soils. Fertilizer applications, weed control, brush management, proper stocking rates, and controlled grazing can help conserve soil moisture and improve or maintain productivity.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX117/0/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/E/ESTACADO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon” is a testament to the power of man’s influence on the land. Massive gullies as deep as 150 feet were caused simply by poor farming practices during the 1800s, yet today they make some of the prettiest photographs within the state. The rare Plumleaf Azalea grows only in this region and blooms during July and August when most azaleas have lost their color. The canyon soil’s pink, orange, red and purple hues make a beautiful natural painting at this quiet park.
The deep red clayey severely eroded and gullied soils are in the Nankin soil series.
The Toecane series consists of very deep, well drained soils with moderately rapid permeability. They formed in colluvium derived from materials weathered primarily from felsic high-grade metamorphic and igneous rocks such as metagraywacke, gneiss, schist, and granite. They are along drainageways, on benches and fans, and in coves in the Blue Ridge (MLRA 130). Slope ranges from 2 to 95 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 59 inches and mean annual temperature is about 51 degrees F. near the type location.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Humic Hapludults
Solum thickness ranges from 30 to more than 60 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Content of mica flakes is few or common in the upper 40 inches of the profile and few to many below 40 inches. Rock fragments range from 15 to 60 percent in the A and B horizons, and from 15 to 80 percent in the C horizon. Average content of rock fragments is 35 to 80 percent by volume in the particle-size control section. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to moderately acid, except where surface layers have been limed.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Toecane soils are used for woodland. Native species include yellow-poplar, eastern hemlock, yellow birch, sweet birch, northern red oak, black cherry, red maple, Fraser magnolia and cucumbertree. At elevations above 4,000 feet yellow birch replaces yellow-poplar as a common tree. Common understory plants include rhododendron, striped maple, serviceberry, Carolina silverbell, trillium, hay scented fern, Solomon's seal, yellow mandarin, woodfern, and New York fern. Some of the less stony or bouldery areas are used for pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Blue Ridge (MLRA 130) of North Carolina and possibly Tennessee and Virginia. The series is of moderate extent.
Toecane soils are associated with residual soils that are on relatively stable landscapes. These soils were formerly included with the Cullasaja or Greenlee series. Cullasaja soils have an umbric epipedon and Greenlee have an ochric epipedon and lack the umbric intergrade property. Particle-size analysis of the fine-earth fraction of three pedons of Toecane indicate the clay content of the Bt horizons commonly range from about 15 to 25 percent. Most pedons have clay content that doubles from the eluvial horizon (AE) to the illuvial horizon (Bt). Weighted average clay content from a depth of 10 to 40 inches ranges from about 12 to 18 percent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/T/TOECANE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: A profile of the Deloss soil. This soil is very poorly drained. (Soil Survey of the City of Chesapeake, Virginia; by Greg Hammer, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Soybeans in an area of the poorly drained Tomotley-Deloss complex, 0 to 1 percent slopes.
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class: Very poorly drained
Permeability: Moderate
Surface Runoff: Very slow to ponded
Parent Material: loamy marine and alluvial sediments
Slope: 0 to 2 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, thermic Typic Umbraquults
Solum Thickness: 40 to 60 inches
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 60 inches
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: 0 to 12, November to April
Soil Reaction: A horizon is very strongly acid to slightly acid. The B horizon is very strongly acid or strongly acid in the upper part and is very strongly acid to slightly acid in the lower part. The C horizon is extremely acid to neutral
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Mostly wooded
Dominant Vegetation: Where wooded--swamp blackgum, sweetgum, water tupelo, cypress, water, and willow oaks, and an undergrowth of bay bushes, myrtle, and gallberry. Where cultivated--corn, oats, soybeans, small grain, truck crops, and pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Lower Coastal Plain of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and possibly Florida and Georgia
Extent: Moderate
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/virginia/VA550...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/D/DELOSS.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Saunook soil series. (Original photo provided by Matthew C. Ricker, NC State University)
The Saunook series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on benches, fans, and toe slopes in coves in the Blue Ridge (MLRA 130). They formed in colluvium derived from materials weathered from felsic to mafic, igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. Slope ranges from 2 to 60 percent. Near the type location, mean annual temperature is 53 degrees F.
and mean annual precipitation is 55 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Humic Hapludults
Solum thickness is 40 to more than 60 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Content of mica flakes is few or common. Rock fragment content is less than 35 percent in the A and Bt horizons, and ranges to 60 percent in the BC and C horizon, where present. The fragments range in size from gravel to stones. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to moderately acid in the A horizon, unless the soil has been limed. It is very strongly acid to slightly acid the Bt and C horizons.
USE AND VEGETATION: Much of this soil has been cleared and is used for orchards, corn, burley tobacco, small grain, truck crops, ornamentals, and pasture, as well as urban development. Common trees are yellow poplar, northern red oak, white oak, yellow buckeye, black cherry, black birch, white ash, cucumbertree, and black locust. Understory plants include mountain-laurel, black locust, rhododendron, greenbrier, flowering dogwood, red maple, poison-ivy, grape,
honeysuckle, sourwood, switchcane, and Christmas fern.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: North Carolina, Tennessee, and possibly Georgia, Virginia, and South Carolina. The series is of large extent.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Macon County, North Carolina, 1990. The name is from the Saunook community, near the type location in Haywood County, North Carolina.
REMARKS: The Saunook series was formerly included with the Tate and Tusquitee series. However, Tate soils have an ochric epipedon that has higher color value, and Tusquitee soils have a cambic horizon.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SAUNOOK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Ichnuun soil:
www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/50767516822/in/album-72157...
Describing and photographing hydric soil field indicators in the Anchorage area of Alaska for the publication "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States". (I would periodically pause my activity to look around to determine if wildlife--bear or moose--were nearby. Based on the amount of scat on the ground, they clearly frequented the area.)
Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States is a guide to help identify and delineate hydric soils in the field. Field indicators (indicators) are not intended to replace or modify the requirements contained in the definition of a hydric soil. Proper use of the indicators requires a basic knowledge of soil-landscape relationships and soil survey procedures.
Hydric soils are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). Most hydric soils exhibit characteristic morphologies that result from repeated periods of saturation or inundation that last more than a few days. Saturation or inundation, when combined with microbial activity in the soil, causes the depletion of oxygen. Prolonged anaerobic conditions promote certain biogeochemical processes, such as the accumulation of organic matter and the reduction, translocation, or accumulation of iron and other reducible elements.
These processes result in distinctive characteristics that persist in the soil during both wet and dry periods, making them particularly useful for identifying hydric soils in the field. The indicators are used to identify the hydric soil component of wetlands; however, there are some hydric soils that lack any of the currently listed indicators. Therefore, the lack of any listed indicator does not prevent classification of the soil as hydric.
Such soils should be studied and their characteristic morphologies identified for inclusion in this guide. The indicators are designed to be regionally specific.
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
For more information about Hydric Soils and their Field Indicators, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
A representative soil profile and landscape of the Batch soil series from England. (Photos and information provided by LandIS, Land Information System: Cranfield University 2022. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK. Last accessed 14/01/2022). (Photos revised.)
These and associated soils are well drained loamy soils over rock. Sometimes reddish. Shallow locally. Steep slopes common.
They are classified as Skeletic Endoleptic Entic Podzols by the WRB soil classification system. (www.fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf)
For more information about this soil, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Saffell series. (Kentucky Soil Atlas; by Anastasios D. Karathanasis, University of Kentucky)
The Saffell series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in loamy and gravelly marine sediments of Tertiary Age. This soil is on Coastal Plain uplands in MLRAs 133A and 133B. Slopes range from 1 to 60 percent. Near the type location, the average annual temperature is about 63 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is about 50 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Hapludults
Solum thickness ranges from 35 to 60 inches. The particle size control section has 15 to 35 percent clay.
USE AND VEGETATION: Principal use is woodland of shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, and upland oaks. Cleared areas are used for pastures of bermudagrass and bahiagrass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. The series is of large extent, nearly 1 million acres.
For additional information about Kentucky soils, visit:
uknowledge.uky.edu/pss_book/4/
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SAFFELL.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: A soil profile of Blanton sand. (Soil Survey of Decatur County, Georgia; by Scott Moore, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Controlled burning, which enhances wildlife habitat, in an area of Blanton loamy sand, 0 to 5 percent slopes.
The Blanton series consists of very deep, somewhat excessively drained to moderately well drained, moderately to slowly permeable soils on uplands and stream terraces in the Coastal Plain. They formed in sandy and loamy marine or eolian deposits. Near the type location, the mean annual temperature is about 67 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is about 55 inches. Slopes range from 0 to 45 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Grossarenic Paleudults
Solum thickness ranges from 60 to more than 80 inches. Content of gravel-sized fragments, dominantly quartz and ironstone pebbles, is less than 10 percent, by volume, in all horizons except the A and E horizons which may have as much as 35 percent, by volume. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout except where the surface has been limed. Depth to the Bt horizon is commonly 50 to 70 inches but ranges from 40 to 80 inches. Redoximorphic features that indicate wetness occur at depths of between 30 and 72 inches.
USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas are cleared and used for cropland, truck crops, improved pasture, and hayland. Natural vegetation consists of slash and longleaf pine, red, bluejack, and live oak with an understory of chinkapin, highland fern, huckleberry, and pineland threeawn, bluestem, panicum, and tickclover.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Coastal Plain of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The series is of large extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/georgia/GA087/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BLANTON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Port soil series; the State Soil of Oklahoma.
Landscape: These soils formed in calcareous, loamy alluvium and under native grasses. A high volume of organic matter recycled in a grass ecosystem has resulted in good soil structure and tilth. Most areas of the soils are used as cropland. The main cultivated crops are alfalfa, wheat, grain sorghum, and cotton. Some areas are used as pasture or rangeland. (Soil Survey of Canadian County, Oklahoma; Original fieldwork by Carl F. Fisher and Bill Swafford, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Update of information by Chuck Sample, Natural Resources Conservation Service).
The Port series consists of very deep, well-drained, moderately permeable, nearly level and very gently sloping soils on flood plains that are subject to frequent, occasional, or rare flooding. Depth to secondary calcium carbonates ranges from 20 to 60 inches. Thickness of the mollic epipedon ranges from 20 to 40 inches.
These soils are in western and central Oklahoma. They are in 33 of the 77 counties and make up about 1 million acres. The Port series was established in 1942 and is named after the small community of Port, Washita County, Oklahoma. The series was added to the list of official State symbols by the Oklahoma Legislature in 1987.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, superactive, thermic Cumulic Haplustolls
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eastern part of the Central Rolling Red Plains (MLRA-78C) and the Central Rolling Red Prairies (MLRA-80A) of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. The series is extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/oklahoma/OK017...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/P/PORT.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Fuquay series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in sandy and loamy marine sediments of the upper Coastal Plain. Permeability is moderate in the upper part of the subsoil and slow in the lower part. Slopes range from 0 to 10 percent.
Taxonomic class: Loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Arenic Plinthic Kandiudults
Kandiudults are the Udults that are very deep and have a kandic horizon and a clay distribution in which the percentage of clay does not decrease from its maximum amount by as much as 20 percent within a depth of 150 cm from the mineral soil surface, or the layer in which the clay percentage decreases has at least 5 percent of the volume consisting of skeletans on faces of peds and there is at least a 3 percent (absolute) increase in clay content below this layer. These soils do not have a fragipan or a horizon in which plinthite either forms a continuous phase or constitutes one-half or more of the volume within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface. Kandiudults are of moderate extent in the Southeastern United States.
Arenic Plinthic Kandiudults soils have a layer, starting at the mineral soil surface, that has a sandy or sandy-skeletal particle-size class and is between 50 and 100 cm thick. They also have 5 to 50 percent (by volume) plinthite in one or more horizons within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface. These soils are of small extent in the United States.
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Cropland
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--tobacco, cotton, corn, soybeans, and small grains. Where wooded--loblolly pine, longleaf pine, and slash pine, with some hardwoods, understory plants including American holly, flowering dogwood, persimmon, and greenbrier.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Upper Coastal Plain of North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina
Extent: Large
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Johnston County, North Carolina; 1965. The Fuquay series is a Benchmark soil.
A benchmark soil is one of large extent within one or more major land resource areas (MLRAs), one that holds a key position in the soil classification system, one for which there is a large amount of data, one that has special importance to one or more significant land uses, or one that is of significant ecological importance.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/F/FUQUAY.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Lloyd series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands in the Southern Piedmont. The soils formed in residuum derived from intermediate and mafic, igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Rhodic Kanhapludults
Most areas are cleared and used for cultivated crops or pasture. Principal crops are corn, small grain, hay and pasture grasses. Common trees in forested areas are loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, Virginia pine, northern red oak, southern red oak, white oak, post oak, hickory, and red maple. Understory plants include dogwood, winged elm, eastern hophornbeam, eastern redbud, eastern red cedar, and sassafras.
These soils are of large extent in the Southern Piedmont in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and possibly Alabama, and Virginia.
These soils were combined with Hiwassee in 1969. Hiwassee series was originally established on high stream terraces. This revision separates the soils formed in residuum as Lloyd on the basis of parent material and depth of Rhodic colors. Terrace Hiwassee soils are dominantly value 3 or less throughout. A proposal to amend the 1996 Keys to Soil Taxonomy involves changing the thickness of the part of the kandic horizon with value of 3 or less to include more soils in the Rhodic subgroup.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/L/LLOYD.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Belmore series consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in loamy and gravelly outwash and are underlain by gravelly, sandy, and loamy outwash deposits. They are on terraces, outwash plains, and glacial drainage channels. Slope ranges from 0 to 50 percent. (Delaware County, Indiana; by Gary R. Struben, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludalfs
Depth to the base of the argillic horizon: 56 to 140 cm (22 to 55 inches) and commonly is the same as depth to carbonates
Special features: tongues of the B horizon in some pedons extend into the underlying outwash material to depths greater than 140 cm (55 inches)
Rock fragments: typically glacial pebbles of mixed lithology
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Belmore soils are cultivated. Corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, and hay are principal crops. Some areas are used for fruit, early truck crops, and sugar beets.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northwestern and west-central Ohio and northern Indiana; mainly in MLRAs 99 and 111B, and of lesser extent in 111A and 111E. The type location is in MLRA 111B. The series is of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/indiana/IN035/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BELMORE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Profile of Lufkin loam. Texture and color change between the surface layer and the clay subsoil. (Soil Survey of Robertson County, Texas; By Harold W. Hyde, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Lufkin series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, very slowly permeable soils on high terraces or remnants of terraces associated with uplands. The soil formed in slightly acid to alkaline clayey sediments. Slopes are dominantly less than 1 percent but range to 3 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, thermic Oxyaquic Vertic Paleustalfs
Solum thickness ranges from 60 to more than 80 inches. Base saturation ranges from 80 to 100 percent by sum of cations throughout the argillic horizon. Clay content of the 10- to 40- inch particle size control section ranges from 35 to 45 percent. When dry, cracks at least 1/4 inch wide extend from the top of the argillic horizon through a thickness of 12 inches or more within the upper 50 inches of the soil. Slickensides and/or wedge-shaped aggregates and pressure faces range from few to common throughout the argillic horizon. Linear extensibility is greater than 2.5 inches (6.0 cm) in the upper 40 inches (100 cm) of the soil. COLE ranges from 0.07 to 0.10 in the upper 50 inches of the argillic horizon. Siliceous pebbles range from none to 10 percent of some subhorizons. Most pedons contain secondary carbonates, barite masses, or gypsum crystals beginning at a depth of 40 to 70 inches. Redox features are both relict and contemporary. The soil does not have aquic soil conditions in most years.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly cultivated in the past but now most areas are in unimproved pastures. Some areas are farmed to grain sorghums, hay crops or small grains for grazing. Other areas are in mixed bermudagrass, dallisgrass, or bahiagrass pastures. Native vegetation is bluestems, gramas, paspalums and threeawn grasses with sedges, post oak, water oak, willow oak, and elm trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mainly in the Texas Claypan region of Texas (MLRA 87A, 87B, and to a lesser extent, on terraces of 86A).
Classification change from Udertic Paleustalfs to Oxyaquic Vertic Paleustalfs based on knowledge that these soils are saturated for 2 to 4 weeks in most years. This period of time is within the definition of saturation for one month or more if rules of rounding are applied, i.e., 2 to 6 weeks saturation is considered inclusive. The soil would classify in the Epioxyaquic subgroup if provided for by SOIL TAXONOMY.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX395/0/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/L/LUFKIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Dothan series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately slowly to slowly permeable soils on broad uplands of the Southern Coastal Plain (MLRA 133A) and to a much lesser extent in the Eastern Gulf Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 152A) Major Land Resource Areas. They formed in thick beds of unconsolidated, medium to fine-textured marine sediments. Slopes range from 0 to 15 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Plinthic Kandiudults
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Dothan soils have been cleared and are used for the production of corn, cotton, peanuts, vegetable crops, hay, and pasture. Forested areas are in longleaf pine, loblolly pine, sweetgum, southern red oak, and hickory.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Coastal Plain of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The series is of large extent.
For a detailed description of the soil, visit:
Soil profile: A soil profile of Vanella cobbly fine sandy loam. The lower part of the argillic horizon starting at approximately 80 centimeters is red, cobbly clay loam. These soils formed in old colluvium derived from sandstone, shale, siltstone, limestone, dolomitic limestone, quartzite, metasandstone, and phyllite. (Soil Survey of Rockbridge County, Virginia; by Mary Ellen Cook, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: A view looking north at Big House and Little House Mountains. The cleared areas are dominantly Carbo, Opequon, Groseclose, Tumbling, and Vanella soils.
Landscape: Hills and mountains
Landform: Debris flows, hillslopes and mountain slopes
MLRA(s): 130A, 147
Hillslope Profile Position: Summits, backslopes and footslopes
Geomorphic Component: Interfluve, crest, nose slope, side slope, base slope and mountainflank
Parent Material: Old colluvium derived from sandstone, shale, limestone, quartzite, metasandstone and phyllite.
Slope: 3 to 35 percent.
Elevation: 1,000 to 3,000 feet
Frost-free period: 130 to 205 days
Mean Annual Air Temperature: 53 to 56 degrees F
Mean Annual Precipitation: 38 to 42 inches
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, subactive, mesic Typic Paleudults
Thickness of the Ochric epipedon: 0 to 60 cm (0 to 24 inches) (A, E and BE horizons)
Depth of the Argillic horizon: 60 to 165 cm (24 to 65 inches) (Bt horizons). The weighted average of clay is 18 to 35 percent in the particle-size control section.
Solum thickness: Greater than 150 cm (60 inches)
Depth to bedrock: Greater than 150 cm (60 inches)
Depth Class: Very Deep
Rock fragment content: 0 to 35 percent in the upper horizons and particle-size control section. Rock fragments can range from 0 to 60 percent below the control section. They consist of a mixture of subrounded and subangular fragments of sandstone, shale, quartzite, metasandstone and phyllite.
Soil Reaction: Very strongly acid or strongly acid except where limed.
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Most areas are in forest. Some areas are used for pasture and cultivated crops.
Dominant Vegetation: Chestnut oak, scarlet oak, post oak, Virginia pine, eastern white pine, and pitch pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: The Northern Appalachian Ridges and Valleys (MLRA 147) and the metasedimentary areas along the western flank of the Northern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130A).
Extent: Moderate
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/virginia/rockb...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/V/VANELLA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: The Haro series consists of shallow, well drained soils formed in glacial drift mixed with colluvium from metasedimentary bedrock. (Soil Survey of San Juan County, Washington; by By Michael Regan, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Haro soils are on south facing hillslopes and mountain slopes at elevations near sea level to 2200 feet. Slopes are 5 to 75 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 26 inches. Mean annual air temperature is about 50 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, isotic, mesic Lithic Ultic Haploxerolls
Mean annual soil temperature - 50 to 54 degrees F.
Soil moisture control section - dry 75 to 90 days following summer solstice
Mollic epipedon thickness - 10 to 20 inches (A and Bw horizons)
Base saturation by ammonium acetate greater than 50 percent from the soil surface to the top of a lithic contact
Base saturation by sum of cations less than 75 percent from the soil surface to the top of a lithic contact
Depth to lithic contact - 10 to 20 inches
Reaction - moderately acid or strongly acid
Volcanic glass - less than 5 percent throughout
Particle size control section:
Clay content - 5 to 18 percent
Rock fragments - 0 to 35 percent gravel, 0 to 5 percent cobbles, 0 to 35 percent total
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used mainly for home sites, pasture, and wildlife habitat. Potential natural vegetation consists of Oregon white oak, Pacific madrone, Roemers fescue, western brackenfern, trailing blackberry, baldhip rose, oceanspray, and common snowberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northwest Washington; MLRA 2, Northern Part. Series is of small extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/washington/WA0...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/50990163642/in/dateposted-...
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Aptos series. Small amounts of gravel occur throughout. The paralithic contact of mudstone is visible at a depth of about 70 centimeters. The subsoil from a depth of 36 to 70 centimeters is clay loam.
The Aptos series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils that formed in material weathered from sandstone, mudstone or shale. Aptos soils are on uplands and have slopes of 15 to 75 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 48 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 55 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Pachic Ultic Argixerolls
Note: Photo taken when the soil was dry.
Depth to a paralithic contact of fine grained sandstone, mudstone or shale is 20 to 40 inches. The soil between depths of 7 and 21 inches is usually dry between mid-July and mid-October and usually moist between the end of December and the end of April. The mean annual soil temperature is about 56 to 59 degrees F. Organic matter content is more than 1 percent at a depth of 20 to 30 inches. Base saturation is more than 50 percent in all parts and less than 75 percent in some or all parts of the profile to a depth of 30 inches. Fragments range from 0 to 15 percent by volume.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for timber production, recreation, wildlife, watershed, and in some areas, homesites and orchards. Vegetation is redwoods, Douglas fir, madrone, tanoak, ferns and poison oak.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central part of the Coast Range of California. The soils are not extensive. MLRA 4.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/california/san...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/A/APTOS.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil scientists explore and seek to understand the earth’s land and water resources. Practitioners of soil science identify, interpret, and manage soils for agriculture, forestry, rangeland, ecosystems, urban uses, and mining and reclamation in an environmentally responsible way.
Soil survey or soil mapping, is the process of classifying soil types and other soil properties in a given area and geo-encoding such information. It applies the principles of soil science, and draws heavily from geomorphology, theories of soil formation, physical geography, and analysis of vegetation and land use patterns. Primary data for the soil survey are acquired by field sampling and by remote sensing.
In the past, a soil scientist would take hard-copies of aerial photography, topo-sheets, and mapping keys into the field with them. Today, a growing number of soil scientists bring a ruggedized tablet computer and GPS into the field with them.
The term soil survey may also be used as a noun to describe the published results. In the United States, these surveys were once published in book form for individual counties by the National Cooperative Soil Survey.
Today, soil surveys are no longer published in book form; they are published to the web and accessed on NRCS Web Soil Survey where a person can create a custom soil survey. This allows for rapid flow of the latest soil information to the user. In the past it could take years to publish a paper soil survey. The information in a soil survey can be used by farmers and ranchers to help determine whether a particular soil type is suited for crops or livestock and what type of soil management might be required.
An architect or engineer might use the engineering properties of a soil to determine whether it is suitable for a certain type of construction. A homeowner may even use the information for maintaining or constructing their garden, yard, or home. Soils are the basis of agriculture and play a critical role in agricultural production as they provide the medium upon which crops can grow. Yet, during the past few decades, focus on the importance of soils has diminished, coupled with harsh man-made and natural conditions that have resulted in soil erosion and soil nutrient mining.
(Original image courtesy of Matthew C. Ricker, NC State University)
[cals.ncsu.edu/crop-and-soil-sciences/people/mcricker/]
The original photo may be viewed at:
www.flickr.com/photos/soilscience/49095430603/in/album-72...
The Fannin series consists of very deep, well drained soils on gently sloping to very steep ridges and side slopes of the Southern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130B). They formed in residuum that is affected by soil creep in the upper part, and is weathered from high-grade metamorphic rocks that are high in mica content such as mica schist and mica gneiss. Mean annual temperature is 52 degrees F., and mean annual rainfall is about 52 inches near the type location. Slopes are 6 to 95 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, micaceous, mesic Typic Hapludults
Solum thickness ranges from 20 to 45 inches. Depth to lithic or paralithic contact is more than 60 inches. Content of coarse fragments range from 0 to 35 percent in the A and C horizons and from 0 to 25 percent in the B horizons. Fragments are dominantly gravel in most pedons but cobbles are dominant in some pedons. Reaction is very strongly acid to slightly acid. Content of flakes of mica is common or many in the surface layer and upper B horizon and is many in the lower B and C horizons.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in forest. Common trees are chestnut oak, scarlet oak, black oak, white oak, hickory, eastern white pine, Virginia pine, and pitch pine. Yellow poplar and northern red oak are common in the northern portions of MLRA 130B. The understory includes flowering dogwood, American chestnut sprouts, flame azalea, blueberry, buffalo nut, mountain laurel, rhododendron, and sourwood. Cleared areas are principally used for pasture and hayland. Small areas are used for growing corn, small grain, truck crops, apples, and Christmas trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130B) of North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. The series is of moderate extent.
Fannin series was formerly classified in the Red-Yellow Podzolic great soil group. Available data show that the Fannin soils have average clay content of less than 35 percent in the Bt horizons, average silt content of 20 to 50 percent in the upper 20 inches of the Bt horizons, and much mica throughout the sola. These soils feel as if they are higher in silt than mechanical analyses shows them to be. They have a greasy feel caused by the high mica content. The mica is dominantly soft and mineral structure is destroyed by prolonged rubbing.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/F/FANNIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Township series. (Soil Survey of Clearwater Area, Idaho; by Glenn Hoffman, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Township series consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in residuum and colluvium from schist and gneiss that are high in mica, with a thick mantle of volcanic ash. They are located on mountain slopes. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high and slopes range from 10 to 75 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 40 inches and the average annual temperature is about 42 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Ashy over loamy-skeletal, amorphic over micaceous, frigid Typic Udivitrands
NOTE: The mineralogy class was changed from paramicaceous to micaceous in 07/2010 by the National Soil Survey Center on request of the responsible MLRA regional office. The change was necessary based on the eleventh edition of the Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 2010.
Average annual soil temperature - 39 to 46 degrees F. (Frigid soil temperature regime)
Soil moisture regime - usually moist year round and not dry for 30 consecutive days during June to October. (Udic soil moisture regime)
Thickness of volcanic ash mantle - 14 to 23 inches.
Volcanic glass - 15 to 50 percent
Acid-oxalate extractable Al+1/2 Fe - 1.3 to 2.7 percent
Phosphorous retention - 55 to 95 percent
15 bar water retention - 8.0 to 12.0 percent on air-dried samples
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for timber production, recreation, watershed, and wildlife habitat. Potential natural vegetation is western redcedar, grand fir, Douglas-fir, western white pine, western larch, and Rocky mountain maple with an understory of queencup beadlily, goldthread, bunchberry dogwood, oneleaf foamflower, northern twinflower, darkwoods violet, common prince's pine, common beargrass, myrtle pachystima, rustyleaf menziesia, western thimbleberry, and common snowberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: North Central Idaho. Township soils are moderately extensive. MLRA 43A. This soil is named after a nearby mountain.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/idaho/clearwat...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/T/TOWNSHIP.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Heintooga series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately rapidly permeable soils on toe slopes, fans and benches in coves at high elevations in the Southern Blue Ridge mountains, MLRA 130B. They formed in colluvium weathered from low-grade metasedimentary rocks. Slope ranges from 2 to 95 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, isotic, frigid Typic Humudepts
Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Reaction ranges from ultra acid to strongly acid throughout. Content of mica flakes is none or few throughout. Rock fragment content ranges from 35 to 80 percent channers and flagstones throughout.
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all of this soil is in forest. Common trees are northern red oak, black birch, American beech, yellow birch, black cherry, sugar maple, eastern hemlock, yellow buckeye, red spruce, and fraser fir. In many areas the trees are stunted due to wind and ice damage and a "windswept" phase is recognized. The understory species are serviceberry, striped maple, American chestnut sprouts, pin cherry, rhododendron, mountain-laurel, silverbell, blueberry, and flame azalea. Common forbs are hay-scented fern, wood fern, New York fern, Solomon's seal, yellow mandarin, and trillium.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Higher elevations of the Southern Blue Ridge mountains, MLRA 130B of North Carolina, Tennessee, and possibly Virginia. This series is of small extent.
The Heintooga series was formerly included with the Balsam series. However, Balsam soils formed in colluvium from high-grade metamorphic and igneous rocks. Although Heintooga soils may exhibit some of the characteristics of andic soil properties, they lack the volcanic glass found in soils of similar taxa in the Western United States.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/H/HEINTOOGA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Sharondale soil series in Kentucky.
Sharondale series consists of very deep, well drained soils with moderately rapid permeability. They formed in loamy colluvium weathered from sandstone, siltstone, and shale. (Soil Survey of Pike County, Kentucky; by John A. Kelley, Soil Conservation Service)
Landscape: These moderately steep to very steep soils are in coves or on mountain sides on north and east facing slopes. Slope ranges from 15 to 100 percent but is dominantly 45 to 90 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 43 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 58 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludolls
Thickness of the solum ranges from 40 to 80 inches and depth to hard bedrock is more than 5 feet. Flat rock fragments, mostly 2mm to 15 inches in length, range from 10 to 85 percent in individual horizons, but average 35 percent or more in the particle-size control section. Clay content ranges from 8 to 27 percent, but is commonly between 12 and 27 percent. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to neutral throughout.
Most areas are in second growth forests with mixed stands of yellow poplar, American basswood, white ash, cucumber tree, northern red oak, black walnut, hickory, black locust, yellow buckeye, Ohio buckeye, and umbrella magnolia.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Sharondale soils are in the Cumberland-Allegheny Plateau of eastern Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. The area is estimated to be of moderate extent, about 50,000 acres. (30,000 acres in Pike County). The Sharondale soils were mostly mapped as Cutshin soils in the past.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/kentucky/KY195...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SHARONDALE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: Chokecherry very gravelly sandy loam. (Soil Survey of Teton Area, Idaho and Wyoming; by Carla B. Rebernak, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Typical range vegetation on detailed map unit Chokecherry-Tubbs Hollow-Sheep Creek, dry complex, 3 to 60 percent slopes. Idaho range site: R013XY114ID; SHALLOW STONY 12-20 ARAR8/PSSPS. (Soil Survey of Bear Lake County Area, Idaho; by Francis R. Kukachka, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Chokecherry series consists of shallow, well drained soils that formed in alluvium and residuum derived from red sandstone, red siltstone, yellow sandstone or siltstone, gray siltstone or loess influenced quartzite or rhyolite. Chokecherry soils are on mountain slopes, hillslopes, and ridges. Slopes range from 2 to 60 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive Lithic Haplocryolls
USE AND VEGETATION: Chokecherry soils are used for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. The present vegetation is mainly mountain big sage, low sage, bluebunch wheatgrass, antelope bitterbrush, serviceberry, snowberry, rabbitbrush, lupine, and few mountain mahogany.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Chokecherry soils are of small extent in southeastern and south-central Idaho; MLRA 43B and 13.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/wyoming/TetonI...
and...
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/idaho/bearlake...
For additional information about Idaho soils, please visit:
storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/97d01af9d4554b9097cb0a477e04...
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CHOKECHERRY.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Berks series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils formed in residuum weathered from shale, siltstone and fine grained sandstone on rounded and dissected uplands. Slope ranges from 0 to 80 percent. Permeability is moderate or moderately rapid. Mean annual precipitation is 42 inches. Mean annual temperature is 52 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
Solum thickness ranges from 12 to 40 inches. Depth to bedrock is 20 to 40 inches. Depth to the top of the cambic horizon range from 3 to 12 inches. Rock fragments range from 10 to 50 percent in the Ap and A horizons, from 15 to 75 percent in individual horizons of the B, and from 35 to 90 percent in the C horizon. The average volume of rock fragments in the particle-size control section is more than 35 percent. In unlimed soils reaction ranges from extremely acid to slightly acid throughout. The dominant clay minerals are illite, vermiculite and interstratified vermiculite chlorite. Small amounts of kaolinite are present.
USE AND VEGETATION: Approximately 60 percent of Berks soils are in cropland and pasture, the remainder are in woodland or other uses. Principal crops are corn, wheat, oats, barley, Christmas trees and hay. Native vegetation is mixed, deciduous hardwood forest.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, and Southern Illinois. MLRA's 115, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 139, 147 and 148. The series is of large extent. The Ashby, Kistler and Trexler soils, which were moderately shallow in some Pennsylvania published surveys are now included in the Berks Series.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BERKS.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Landscape: hills and mountains in Cumberland Plateau and Mountains
Landform: hillslope, mountain side,
Geomorphic Component: benches, side slope, base slopes
Hillslope Profile Position: back slope, footslope and toeslopes
Parent Material Origin: sandstone and siltstone
Parent Material Kind: Colluvium
Slope: 8 to 90 percent
Elevation: 183 to 1219 meters, 600 to 4000 feet
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Forestry
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--Less sloping areas are used for pasture and as sites for houses or gardens. Where wooded--are in secondary growth hardwood forest with mixed stands of white oak, American beech, mockernut hickory, pignut hickory, black oak, sugar maple, sassafras, red maple, chestnut oak, Virginia pine, and flowering dogwood.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Allegheny-Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky with possible similar areas in West Virginia, Virginia, and eastern Tennessee
Extent: Large, approximately 200,000 acres.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/F/FEDSCREEK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Gritney series consists of very deep, moderately well drained soils that formed in fine-textured sediments on Coastal Plain uplands. Permeability is slow. Slopes range from 0 to 15 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic Aquic Hapludults
USE AND VEGETATION: Gritney soils are used for crops, pasture and forest land. Principal crops grown are corn, soybeans, small grain, cotton, peanuts and hay and pasture. Wooded areas are mixed hardwood and pine. Tree species include white oak, post oak, southern red oak, red maple, sweetgum, hickory, elm, ash, American sycamore, beech, and loblolly pine. Common understory plants are American holly, dogwood, sassafras, sourwood, and waxmyrtle. Threeawn is a common native grass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia, and possibly South Carolina.