View allAll Photos Tagged soilscience
Typic Petrogypsids, sandy, gypsic, hyperthermic (Soil AD121) are shallow, sandy soils with gypsum occurring in the surface and a petrogypsic layer occuring within 50cm of the surface. They occur in all parts of the Emirate and occupy the nearly level parts of inland gently undulating plains and the caps of mesas that represent paleo-evaporite surfaces. They are somewhat excessively to moderately well drained soils above the hardpan and have rapid or moderately rapid permeability.
These soils remain as barren land or in some places have been leveled for agroforestry or sometimes used for low intensity grazing by camel, sheep or goats. They frequently have less than 5% vegetation cover of Cornulaca aucheri, Cornulaca monacantha, Cyperus conglomeratus, Haloxylon persicum, Haloxylon salicornicum, Stipagrostis plumosa and Zygophyllum spp.
Plate 22: Typical soil profile and associated landscape for Typic Petrogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic, shallow (Soil AD124).
Soil profile: A typical profile of Taney soil. The Taney series consists of moderately deep to fragipan, moderately well drained soils that formed mainly in loess or reworked loess with an influence of volcanic ash in the upper part. The vitrandic feature in this profile extends from the surface to a depth of about 45 centimeters.
Landscape: An area of Taney ashy silt loam, 3 to 10 percent slopes. The lower elevations have the highest temperatures and longest growing season. The average annual precipitation is about 51 centimeters and the average annual temperature is about 6.1 degrees C. Typical soils are the Taney, Setters, Carlinton, Southwick, and Cavendish series. Taney soils are on dissected hills and hills on basalt plains, plateaus and structural benches. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high above the fragipan and low through the fragipan. Slope ranges from 0 to 35 percent. (Soil Survey of Clearwater Area, Idaho; by Glenn Hoffman, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, superactive, frigid Vitrandic Argixerolls
Soil moisture - Usually dry for 45 to 60 consecutive days mid-July to mid-September, moist mid-September to mid-July (xeric moisture regime)
Average annual soil temperature - 5.0 to 8.3 degrees C
Average summer soil temperature - 10.6 to 12.8 degrees C with an O horizon (frigid temperature regime)
Thickness of mollic epipedon - 25 to 50 centimeters
Depth to base of argillic - 114 to 152 centimeters or more
Depth to fragipan - 69 to 102 centimeters
Particle-size control section (weighted average): Clay content - 18 to 20 percent
Vitrandic feature thickness - 25 to 51 centimeters
Volcanic glass content in the 0.02 to 2.0 mm fraction - 5 to 20 percent
Acid-oxalate extractable Al plus 1/2 Fe - 0.4 to 1.0 percent
Phosphate retention - 30 to 40 percent
15-bar water retention on air dried samples - 10 to 13 percent
Moist bulk density - 1.00 to 1.45 g/cc
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used mainly for dryland small grain, hay, pasture and woodland. Potential natural vegetation is mainly Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, with an understory of common snowberry, white spirea, creambush oceanspray, mallow ninebark, Nootka rose, Woods rose, Columbia brome, sweetscented bedstraw and pinegrass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Idaho; MLRA 9 and 43A. The series is of large extent; about 156,000 acres.
For additional information about Idaho soils, please visit:
storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/97d01af9d4554b9097cb0a477e04...
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/TANEY.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Boulderwood series (Ruptic Stagnic Albic Podzols) in England. (Cranfield University 2021. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK.)
Soils classified and described by the World Reference Base for England and Wales:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/wrb_list.cfm
Boulderwood soils are very acid soils. They occur in the New Forest where river terrace drift and Plateau Gravel cover Tertiary clays, loamy and sands. In the north of the forest, the soils are on a series of flat-topped ridges which descend southward from 125 to 60 m O.D. Further south the association is extensive on level ground at 30-45 m O.D. The sequence of terraces formed by the deposits is related to a former eastward flowing "Solent River".
Subsoil pans and other slowly permeable layers impede vertical water movement through Bolderwood soils by causing seasonal waterlogging (Wetness Class III or IV). Excess winter rain is absorbed slowly and water commonly ponds on the land surface after heavy rain but there is little run-off. Southampton soils are permeable and well drained (Wetness Class I).
The proportion of enclosed agricultural land is small and use is limited to grass paddocks for horses and cattle. Most of the land is open forest grazed by horses, cattle and pigs with heath vegetation dominated by ling (Calluna vulgaris). Investigation of buried profiles and pollen analysis has shown that the development of podzols was in part related to woodland clearance for agriculture, probably in the Bronze Age, and the subsequent invasion of cleared and impoverished land by heath.
For additional information about the soil association, visit:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/mapunit.cfm?mu=64303
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
Typical landscape for map unit TTP29; Intervening flats of map unit TPG07 can be seen in the middle distance.
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 photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Landscape: Upland
Landform: Ridge, hill, and hillslope
Geomorphic Component: Interfluve, head slope, nose slope, or side slope
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, or backslope
Parent Material Origin: Nearly horizontal, interbedded gray and brown acid siltstone, shale, and sandstone
Parent Material Kind: Residuum
Slope: 0 to 70 percent
Elevation: 91 to 1097 meters (300 to 3600 feet)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludults
Depth to the top of the Argillic: 13 to 38 cm (5 to 15 inches)
Depth to the base of the Argillic: 53 to 94 cm (21 to 37 inches)
Solum Thickness: 45 to 91 cm (18 to 36 inches)
Depth to Bedrock: 51 to 102 cm (20 to 40 inches)
Depth Class: Moderately deep
Rock Fragment content: 5 to 40 percent, by volume, in the solum and 30 to 90 percent, by volume, in the C horizon. The rock fragment content is less than 35 percent, by volume, in the upper 20 inches of the argillic horizon. Rock fragments are mostly angular to subangular channers of shale, siltstone, and sandstone.
Soil Reaction: Extremely acid through strongly acid throughout, except where limed
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Hayland, pasture, cropland, and woodland
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--Grass-legume hay, corn, soybeans, wheat, or oats. Where wooded--Oaks, maple, hickory, and yellow-poplar.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia
Extent: Large, over 6 million acres, at the time of this revision
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/G/GILPIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Hand wearing latex glove testing water with instrument in lab at UMCP Greenhouse © Edwin Remsberg, High res download available from www.remsberg.com
North Carolina State Soil
The Cecil series consists of very deep, well drained moderately permeable soils on ridges and side slopes of the Piedmont uplands. They are deep to saprolite and very deep to bedrock. They formed in residuum weathered from felsic, igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont uplands. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults
USE AND VEGETATION: About half of the total acreage is in cultivation, with the remainder in pasture and forest. Common crops are small grains, corn, cotton, and tobacco.
Originally mapped in Cecil County, Maryland in 1899, more than 10 million acres (40,000 km²) of the Cecil soil series are now mapped in the Piedmont region of the southeastern United States. It extends from Virginia through North Carolina (where it is the state soil), South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, with the typic Cecil pedon actually located in Franklin County, NC.
The Cecil series developed over igneous rock such as granite, and metamorphic rock which is chemically similar to granite. Virgin Cecil soils support forests dominated by pine, oak and hickory, and have a topsoil of brown sandy loam. The subsoil is a red clay which is dominated by kaolinite and has considerable mica. Few Cecil soils are in their virgin state, for most have been cultivated at one time or another. Indifferent land management has allowed many areas of Cecil soils to lose their topsoils through soil erosion, exposing the red clay subsoil. This clay is amenable to cultivation, responds well to careful management, and supports healthy growth of pine where allowed to revert to forest. Like other well-drained Ultisols, it is ideal for urban development; however, in common with other kaolinite-dominated clays, it has little ability to recover from soil compaction.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CECIL.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. Backhoes and shovels are used to expose larger soil sections for examination, sampling, and photography. Where a probe or auger is regularly used for examining the soil, a large pit exposed by a backhoe can be used to ensure map unit concepts are as predicted and have not strayed from the conceptual model developed.
For more information, visit;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=n...
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Stuttgart series; the State Soil of Arkansas.
Landscape: Rice grown on Stuttgart soil (foreground). Soybeans are shown growing on Stuttgart soil (background).
Stuttgart soil series was adopted as the official state soil by the Eighty-first General Assembly of Arkansas in 1997. Named or the city of Stuttgart in southeast Arkansas, these soils occur in the Grand Prairie and are of similar age, on large upland terraces within the Lower Mississippi Valley.
The Stuttgart series consists of very deep, moderately well to somewhat poorly drained, slowly permeable soils that formed in silty and clayey alluvium. These level to gently sloping soils are on Prairie terraces in the Lower Mississippi Valley, MLRA 131. Slopes are typically less than 3 percent, but range to 5 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, thermic Albaquultic Hapludalfs
Solum thickness is more than 60 to more than 80 inches. There is an abrupt texture change between the ochric epipedon and the underlying argillic horizon. Sodium saturation ranges from 5 to 15 percent in the upper 16 inches of the argillic. It generally increases with depth and may range over 20 percent in the lower part in some pedons.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are cleared and used for the production of rice, soybeans, small grains and corn. The native vegetation was mainly tall
grasses, with large areas of hardwood forests of oaks, gums and ash with scattered areas of shortleaf pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Prairie terraces in Arkansas and possibly Louisiana. The series is of large extent with over 150,000 acres mapped.
For additional information about this state soil, visit:
www.soils4teachers.org/files/s4t/k12outreach/ar-state-soi...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/STUTTGART.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Petroferric contact is a boundary between soil and a continuous layer of "indurated" material in which iron is an important cement and organic matter is either absent or present only in traces. However, is the material below the contact (the ironstone sheet) required to be indurated to have petroferric contact?
"Indurated" is generally used when referring to a class of rupture resistance. Rupture resistance is an estimate of the force required to rupture (break) an aggregate. The hardness of a fragment is significant where the rupture resistance class is strongly cemented or greater. Indurated is a class assigned to cemented materials that exhibit the strongest resistance to rupture.
The layer (below the contact) in this pedon from Lee County, SC, was cemented, but does not meet the criteria for an "indurated" rupture resistance class. Specimens tested failed by foot pressure under full body weight but could not be broken by moderate force between hands, indicating a "strongly cemented" rupture resistance class. Excavaton difficulty was very high, i.e., excavation by pick with over-the-head swing was moderately to markedly difficult.
Ironstone or other lithic materials are required to be strongly or more cemented (coherent), but not indurated. Does this pedon fall within a void in our soil classification system? Applying a strict application of the current description for petroferric materials, the pedon fails to meet the concept because it is not indurated. If a more liberal definition for petroferric materials is applied which includes strongly or more cemented materials it is within the conceptual model.
The "Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 13th Edition, p.37, Figure 3-24" describes this pedon as having a petroferric contact and an indurated ironstone sheet. This would lead one to assume the use of the term "indurated" as it applies with petroferric contact may not be the same as "indurated" when describing rupture resistance.
Additionally, if the hardpan layer was cemented, but less than strongly cemented, it would fail all current diagnostic subsurface horizon classifications. It would be easy to say this is an exception and not of critical importance; however, similar materials have been identified underlying plinthic soils in the Ceredo of Brazil.
[www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/50556047286/in/album-72157..]
Nonpedogenic layers (such as bedrock) make a distinction for soft versus hard bedrock using a "para" prefix, i.e., "paralithic versus lithic contact. Using this same naming convention, is "parapetroferric contact" a reasonable consideration?
___________________________
For additional information about soil classification using Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 13th Edition, 2022, visit:
[www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/Keys-to-Soi...]
A petroferrric layer may be fractured if the average lateral distance between fractures is 10 cm or more. The fact that this ironstone layer contains little or no organic matter distinguishes it from a placic horizon and an indurated spodic horizon (ortstein), both of which contain organic matter.
The petroferric contact is generally recognized in some tropical and subtropical areas where layers of ironstone have formed in the soil as sesquioxides accumulated. In the Tropics, the ironstone is generally more or less vesicular (i.e., pockets or voids of softer material):
[www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/50551133728/in/album-72157..].
A representative soil profile of the Bouldin series. Bouldin soils have stones and boulders on the surface. They have numerous stones and cobbles throughout. (Soil Survey of Sequatchie County, Tennessee; by Jerry L. Prater, Natural Resourses Conservation Service)
The Bouldin series consists of deep, somewhat excessively drained soils that formed in stony colluvium weathered from interbedded sandstone, siltstone, and shale. They are on steep and very steep hillslopes and mountainflanks with slopes that range from 10 to 75 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, siliceous, semiactive, mesic Typic Paleudults
Thickness of the solum ranges from 60 to more than 80 inches. Depth to bedrock; limestone, sandstone or shale, ranges from 5 to more than 10 feet. Coarse fragments, mostly consisting of sandstone channers, cobbles, flagstones, or stones, range from 15 to 55 percent in the surface layer and from 35 to 90 percent in the subsoil and substratum. Size of fragments ranges from less than one inch to several feet across, but the dominant range is 10 to 20 inches. Reaction is very strongly or strongly acid throughout.
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all sites are in hardwood forest consisting chiefly of oaks, hickories, yellow poplar, maples, dogwood, and a few shortleaf and Virginia pines.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Along the edges of the Cumberland Plateau and Mountains in Tennessee and Kentucky, and possibly northern Alabama and Georgia. The series is of large extent including over 300,000 acres in Tennessee and Kentucky.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/tennessee/sequ...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BOULDIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: The Colthorp series consists of shallow to a duripan, well drained soils. They formed in silty alluvium from loess and weathered volcanic ash. Permeability is moderately slow.
Landscape: Colthorp soils are on basalt plains, terraces and on plug domes and lava flow lobes on lava plains and shield volcanoes. Elevations range from 2,600 to 4,700 feet. Slopes are 0 to 20 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic, shallow Xeric Argidurids
Average annual soil temperature - 50 to 55 degrees F.
Depth to duripan - 10 to 20 inches
Depth to bedrock - 20 to 40 inches
Depth to secondary calcium carbonates - 5 to 15 inches
Particle-size control section - 18 to 30 percent clay; 0 to 15 percent rock fragments
Moisture control section - moist less than 90 consecutive days when the soil temperature is greater than 47 degrees F.
USE AND VEGETATION: The Colthorp soils are used mainly for rangeland. Some areas are irrigated and are used for pasture, hay, corn, small grains, sugar beets, and potatoes. Vegetation in the potential natural plant community is mainly Wyoming big sagebrush, bluebunch wheatgrass, Sandberg bluegrass, and Thurber needlegrass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern and south central Idaho; MLRA 11. It is of moderate extent.
The classification of this pedon has been revised as of 4/00 from loamy, mixed, mesic, shallow Xerollic Durargids to loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic, shallow Xeric Argidurids based on revision to Soil Taxonomy.
The term silty alluvium used in this series concept infers a localized influence on the mixed loess and weathered volcanic ash soil material by overland flow of running water.
Geographic setting - terms used throughout MLRA 11 to identify the setting of this soil are quire varied although all equate to the same landscape. There will be further investigation from an MLRA project level as to the accepted terms for use.
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/COLTHORP.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
North Carolina State Soil
A soil profile of Cecil sandy loam, 2 to 6 percent slopes from the Soil Survey of Granville County, North Carolina. (Photo by John Kelley, USDA-NRCS).
The Cecil series consists of very deep, well drained moderately permeable soils on ridges and side slopes of the Piedmont uplands. They are deep to saprolite and very deep to bedrock. They formed in residuum weathered from felsic, igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont uplands. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults
USE AND VEGETATION: About half of the total acreage is in cultivation, with the remainder in pasture and forest. Common crops are small grains, corn, cotton, and tobacco.
Originally mapped in Cecil County, Maryland in 1899, more than 10 million acres (40,000 km²) of the Cecil soil series are now mapped in the Piedmont region of the southeastern United States. It extends from Virginia through North Carolina (where it is the state soil), South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, with the typic Cecil pedon actually located in Franklin County, NC.
The Cecil series developed over igneous rock such as granite, and metamorphic rock which is chemically similar to granite. Virgin Cecil soils support forests dominated by pine, oak and hickory, and have a topsoil of brown sandy loam. The subsoil is a red clay which is dominated by kaolinite and has considerable mica. Few Cecil soils are in their virgin state, for most have been cultivated at one time or another. Indifferent land management has allowed many areas of Cecil soils to lose their topsoils through soil erosion, exposing the red clay subsoil. This clay is amenable to cultivation, responds well to careful management, and supports healthy growth of pine where allowed to revert to forest. Like other well-drained Ultisols, it is ideal for urban development; however, in common with other kaolinite-dominated clays, it has little ability to recover from soil compaction.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CECIL.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Somewhat poorly drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Very shallow to moderately deep, common
Flooding Frequency and Duration: Frequent to rare for very brief to long periods
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None
Index Surface Runoff: Negligible to low
Permeability: Moderate
Landscape: Piedmont and Coastal Plain river valleys
Landform: Flood plains
Parent Material: Alluvium
Slope: 0 to 2 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, thermic Fluvaquentic Dystrudepts
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 80 inches
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: 6 to 24 inches, November to April
Rock Fragment content: Less than 5 percent, by volume, in the A and upper B horizons. In some pedons, gravel content ranges to 15 percent by volume in the lower B horizons.
Soil Reaction: Very strongly acid to slightly acid to a depth of 40 inches, very strongly acid to mildly alkaline below 40 inches, except where limed
Other Features: Few to many mica flakes throughout and none to common
concretions
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Pasture, cropland, some forest
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--corn, small grain. Where wooded--yellow poplar, sweetgum, water oak, eastern cottonwood, green ash, blackgum, red maple, willow oak, and American sycamore. Loblolly pines are in some areas that are not subject to frequent flooding. Common understory plants include river birch, winged elm, hackberry, greenbrier, American holly, black willow, sourwood, eastern and hophornbeam.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Extent: Large
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CHEWACLA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
This photo accompanies Figure 9.—Indicators A2, Histic Epipedon and A3, Black Histic. [Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States].
Typical landscape of the Mosquito soil series (foreground). The Mosquito series (Ruptic Histoturbel) consists of very poorly drained, very shallow to moderately deep soils over permafrost. They formed in silty alluvium or organic matter over alluvium in regions of groundwater discharge on alluvial plains in broad valleys and flats. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual precipitation is 9 to 14 inches, approximately one third of which falls as snow.
Groundwater discharge neutralizes organic acids in the organic horizon, and results in a higher pH of these horizons than in most other Ruptic Histoturbels in this region. Because permafrost is relatively impermeable, groundwater must be discharged through associated unfrozen soils.
Mosquito soils are used for wildlife habitat and watershed protection. Soil drainage is not improved sufficiently by clearing to allow agricultural use. The soils support forest of tamarack and black spruce, with shrub birch and cottonsedge in the understory.
These soil are of moderate extent in the Interior Alaska Lowlands.
One method to field test for high iron content in soils is to use a magnet. Fine soil aggregates that adhere to a magnet are indicative of a ferritic mineralogy class.
Oxisols with more than 40 percent (by weight) iron oxide as Fe2O3 (more than 28 percent Fe), extractable by dithionite-citrate, in the fine-earth fraction have a ferritic mineralogy class.
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-...
The Caid series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in loamy calcareous alluvium of Quaternary age. These nearly level to gently sloping soils occur on stream terraces. Slope ranges from 0 to 5 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 635 mm (25 in) and the mean annual temperature is about 21.1 degrees C (70 degrees F.)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, hyperthermic Aridic Paleustolls
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly rangeland. Small areas are dry-farmed to such crops as small grain, grain sorghum, and introduced grasses. Small areas are irrigated to such crops as cotton, corn, grain sorghum, small grain, truck crops, and introduced grasses. The original plant community was open grassland dominated by mid-grasses with occasional mesquite trees and woody shrubs. Bundleflower, bushsunflower, and orange zexmania are important forbs. In early stages of retrogression, such plants as pink pappusgrass and plains bristlegrass increase but decrease with further deterioration. Other plants which increase or invade are hooded windmillgrass, Hall panicum, curlymesquite, threeawn, red grama, mesquite, whitebrush, blackbrush, condalia, wolfberry, spiny hackberry, guayacan, guajillo, twisted acacia, Texas persimmon, and pricklypear cactus. Ecological site is Clay loam 18-25" PZ; (R083BY416TX).
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Rio Grande Plain of Texas; LRR I; MLRA 83A; This series is of large extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CAID.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the series (Profundic Chromic Luvisols) in England. (Cranfield University 2021. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK.)
Soils classified and described by the World Reference Base for England and Wales:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/wrb_list.cfm
These freely draining, slightly acid, loamy soils are inextensive in southern England where the Chalk is covered by silty aeolian drift over Clay-with-flints and Plateau Drift, and in Lincolnshire where it occurs on chalky till. The principal soils are deep and well drained, usually with reddish clayey subsoils. Carstens soils are fine-silty over clayey typical paleo-argillic brown earths that constitute more than half of the association.
These soils are most extensive on level surfaces in north and east Hampshire, particularly in a broad belt from Petersfield to Basingstoke and westwards to Andover, where the landscape becomes increasingly dissected. Carstens soils occur on the broader interfluves where the silty cover to the Clay-with-flints is consistently present.
Carsten soils have well structured clayey subsoil horizons which allow good drainage to the underlying chalk, so they are rarely waterlogged (Wetness Class I). Surface run-off is negligible and the presence of permeable soils on valley sides ensures good acceptance of winter rain.
Carsten soils are well suited to cultivation and are only slightly droughty for most arable crops. The weakly structured topsoils tend to slake and cap and then become cloddy on drying out in spring, so seed beds are difficult to prepare. There are good opportunities for autumn landwork but there are fewer days available for cultivations in spring especially in wet years. The soils are suited to direct drilling of winter cereals and, with good management, yields are similar to those achieved using conventional cultivations. Direct drilling of spring barley is less successful. Fertility is generally better than in the surrounding shallow chalk soils with larger amounts of phosphorus and potassium, but low levels of magnesium can lead to deficiencies in crops and livestock. Exposure on higher land can delay growth in spring. Winter wheat and winter barley are the main crops either grown continuously or with oilseed rape as a break. Other crops include sugar beet and potatoes with some vining peas.
For additional information about the soil association, visit:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/mapunit.cfm?mu=58104
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Harwell series (Haplic Luvisols) in England. (Cranfield University 2021. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK.)
Soils classified and described by the World Reference Base for England and Wales:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/wrb_list.cfm
Harwell soils are found on gently sloping ridges and in the Vale of Kingsclere they occupy the gently sloping lower land of the vale. Most land is devoted to cereals but grass is also grown.
These are fertile, easy working greyish brown and olive coloured soils with a small iron content and large fine sand and silt fractions. They are developed in Corallian sandstones (Arngrove Stone) in east Oxfordshire and in Upper Greensand interbedded fine sandstones, siltstones and clays in south Oxfordshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The sandstones are referred to as malmstone and in some places include chert. The mineral glauconite is a common constituent and it occurs locally in sufficient quantities to give the soils a greenish colour. In most districts the soils are developed on a small, more or less dissected bench or escarpment near the foot of the chalk, and most delineations include a narrow moderately to steeply sloping scarp face and a broader gentle dipslope. In south and east Oxfordshire, however, the soils are found on gently sloping ridges and in the Vale of Kingsclere they occupy the gently sloping lower land of the vale.
Harwell soils are naturally well drained (Wetness Class I). Vertical water movement is impeded by slowly permeable fine loamy or clayey subsoils or by underlying sandstone or siltstone. These rocks have few coarse pores and the fissures between rock fragments are commonly filled with illuvial clay. Consequently, in winter, the rock layer becomes saturated and slowly permeable so water moves through the subsoil laterally. The pattern of wet and dry soils on escarpment slopes is complex, especially where slumping has occurred and springs are common. There is little surface run-off. Erosion occurs on capped soils, along wheelings and, where flow is concentrated on slopes, rills are common. Surface ponding is frequent on compacted level ground. Regular subsoiling helps to reduce compaction and promote vertical water movement but pipe drainge systems are sometimes preferred, especially on land where crops are often harvested late in the season or where fruit is grown.
The fertility of this land has long been recognized and its versatility is evident from the wide range of crops grown. Large reserves of available water and the slow but continuous release of potassium together with skilful management ensure that most crops yield well. Most land is devoted to cereals but grass is also grown. Harwell soils can sustain high stocking densities and the risk of poaching is negligible; yields are slightly smaller in south Oxfordshire than elsewhere. In the Harwell district of Oxfordshire and near Selborne in Hampshire, apples, pears, raspberries and blackberries are grown; there are also several hop gardens around Alton. Buriton and Hendred soils are much less flexible and cropping is restricted to grass and winter cereals. Some strongly sloping scarp and valley sides are in permanent or rough grassland.
For additional information about the soil association, visit:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/series.cfm?serno=71...
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Huston Black soil series; the State Soil of Texas..
Landscape: These nearly level to moderately sloping soils occur on interfluves and side slopes on upland ridges and plains on dissected plains. Slopes are mainly 1 to 3 percent but range from 0 to 8 percent. Nearly all is cultivated and used for growing cotton, sorghums, and corn. Native vegetation consists of tall and mid grass prairies of little bluestem, big bluestem, indiangrass, switchgrass, and sideoats grama, with scattered elm, mesquite, and hackberry trees
The Houston Black series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, very slowly permeable soils that formed in clayey residuum derived from calcareous mudstone of Cretaceous Age.
The Houston Black series occurs on about 1.5 million acres in the Blackland Prairie, which extends from north of Dallas south to San Antonio. Because of their highly expansive clays, Houston Black soils are recognized throughout the world as the classic Vertisols, which shrink and swell markedly with changes in moisture content. These soils formed under prairie vegetation and in calcareous clays and marls. Water enters the soils rapidly when they are dry and cracked and very slowly when they are moist.
They also occur in several metropolitan areas, where their very high shrink-swell potential commonly is a limitation affecting building site development. The Professional Soil Scientists Association of Texas has recommended to the State Legislature that the Houston Black series be designated the State soil. The series was established in 1902.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX439/0/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/H/HOUSTON_BLACK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of a very-fine, smectitic, superactive, thermic Chromic Epiaquert. (Photo and comments courtesy of Stan Buol, NCSU.)
This profile was photographed in Ponte Coupee Parish, Louisiana. This soil is formed in clayey alluvium on a nearly level slope in the lower Mississippi River basin. Unless protected by levees, which this site is, this soil is subjected to frequent flooding. Also, engineered drainage systems have lowered the ground water table and this soil is now only subject to saturation in the upper horizons over the very slowly permeable clay in the subsoil.
At the time the photograph was taken the soil was rather moist and there is only slight evidence in cracks that when dry extend from the surface to more than 24 inches. Slickensides are present in all horizons between 10 and 60 inches.
Surface horizons are slightly acid and subsoil is slightly alkaline. Where protected by levees and drained these soils are extensively used for crop land especially flooded (paddy) rice production. In areas not protected by levees these soils are not cropped and are vegetated by bottomland hardwoods.
____________________________________
Chromic Epiaquerts are the deep or very deep, poorly drained or very poorly drained, clayey Epiaquerts that have light colored surface layers. These soils do not have significant amounts of sodium or salts or a soil moisture regime that borders on xeric, aridic, or ustic. They occur in Arkansas. They are used mostly as pasture, but some are used for hay or other crops.
Epiaquerts are the Aquerts that have one or more soil layers that perch water. Commonly, these layers are close to the surface. These soils occur on a variety of landforms, including flood plains, glacial lake planes, and depressions. In the United States, they occur in a number of Western States, on the northern Great Plains, and in the South. They also occur in Puerto Rico.
Aquerts are the wet Vertisols. They have aquic conditions at or near the surface for extended periods during the year, but they also are dry for periods long enough in normal years for cracks to open. These soils are typically in low areas, such as glacial lake plains, flood plains, stream terraces, and depressions. Previously, there were no provisions for wet Vertisols in soil taxonomy, and these soils were assigned to the Vertic subgroups of Aquolls, Aqualfs, and Aquepts.
The central concept of Vertisols is that of clayey soils that have deep, wide cracks for some time during the year and have slickensides within 100 cm of the mineral soil surface. They shrink when dry and swell when moistened. Vertisols make up a relatively homogeneous order because of the amounts and kinds of clay common to them; however, their microvariability within a pedon is great. Before the advent of modern classification systems, these soils were already well known for their characteristic color, the cracks they produce during the dry season, and the difficulty of their engineering properties.
For more information about the Sharkey soil series, visit;
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SHARKEY.html
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
A plinthic horizon contains a significant amount of plinthite (15 percent or more). If the horizon constitutes a "continuous phase", zones that roots can enter are more than 10cm apart and plinthite makes up 50 percent or more of the volume of the horizon (proposed). Plinthite (Gr. plinthos, brick) is an iron-rich, humus-poor mixture of clay with quartz and other highly weathered minerals. It commonly occurs as reddish redox concentrations in a layer that has a polygonal (irregular), platy (lenticular), or reticulate (blocky) pattern.
Plinthite irreversibly hardens upon exposure to repeated wetting and drying, especially if exposed to heat from the sun. Other morphologically similar iron-rich materials that do not progressively harden upon repeated wetting and drying are not considered plinthite. The horizon in which plinthite occurs commonly has 2.5 percent (by mass) or more citrate dithionite extractable iron in the fine-earth fraction and a ratio between acid oxalate extractable Fe and citrate-dithionite extractable Fe of less than 0.10.
For more information about a plinthic horizon, visit;
www.researchgate.net/publication/242649722_Rationale_for_...
or;
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00167061220043...
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 representative profile of the moderately deep Alo series. Photo was taken in late winter with soil cracks closed. Clay soil materials extend to a depth of 89 centimeters (to the paralithic contact of sandstone that is slightly lighter in color). Alo soils are very similar to the deep Alamont soils. These are expansive soils, swelling in winter and cracking upon drying in late spring, summer, and early fall.
The Alo sereis was created when the Altamont series was split into two series. Soils deeper than 40 inches to a paralithic contact were retained in the Altamont series. Soils less than 40 inches deep to a paralithic contact were placed in the Alo series. The Alo series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils. They formed in material weathered from shale or sandstone on mountains. Alo soils have slopes of 2 to 75 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 17 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 61 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, thermic Aridic Haploxererts
Depth to a paralithic contact of shale is 24 to 40 inches. The mean annual soil temperature is about 60 to 66 F. at 20 inch depth. From about late April or May until November the soils are continuously dry and cracks 1/2 to 2 inches wide extend from the surface to a depth of 20 inches or more. The rest of the year the soils are moist in some or all parts below 5 inches and the cracks are closed. Few to many slickensides are present in some part from near the surface to near the contact with soft shale.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for livestock grazing with small areas used for the production of small grains, hay and specialty crops. Vegetation in uncultivated areas is annual grasses and forbs.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Coast Range in central and southern California. The soils are of moderate extent in MLRA-15.
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/ALO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A poster of soil profiles of 362 representative "soil series" from across the U.S. Soil series are the lowest level in Soil Taxonomy. All the soils of a series have horizons that are similar in composition, thickness, and arrangement. A soil series is a conceptual class defined to represent natural bodies of soils (polypedons) on the landscape. Soil series are defined by properties within the series control section as defined in Soil Taxonomy. For additional information and definition of terms, visit "A Glossary of Terms Used in Soil Survey and Soil Classification."
Zoom in and you will see each soil has been labeled with the official soil series name and state where established. Individual State Soils have been identified for each state.
Soil color is one of the few things in nature that is arguably of equal interest to both natural resource scientists and children at play. Successful soil scientists and surveyors appreciate the tremendous quantity of information that is typically related to soil color variation in depth and space.
While not always entirely quantitative, soil color supports a practical, qualitative scaffolding for our understanding of a landscape’s recent and long-term history, clues about dominant mineralogy, a striking picture of where organic matter has accumulated, and many other factors that affect our use and understanding of the soil resource. Given the right context, soil color and its interpretation can be effectively used as a narrative for educating people about “what types of soils are where, and why?”.
To communicate this part-art and part-science topic, Soil and Plant Science Division staff have recently created maps and images displaying soil colors in both the vertical and horizontal dimensions. Enjoy this unique opportunity to see how soils and geologic features are inextricably linked and vary across the landscape.
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Fuquay soil. Fuquay soils have sandy surface layers more than 50 centimeters thick overlying a loamy subsoil subsoil with more than 5 percent plinthite (reddish iron rich concentrations) within a depth of 150 centimeters.
Landscape: Fuquay soils formed on marine terraces and are dominantly used for cropland. With proper use and management these soils are very productive.
MLRA(s): 133A-Southern Coastal Plain, 153A-Atlantic Coast Flatwoods (upper part)
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Deep or very deep, common
Flooding Frequency and Duration: None
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None
Slowest Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity: Moderately low
Landscape: Upper and middle coastal plains
Landform: Marine terraces, uplands, flats
Geomorphic Component: Interfluves, side slopes
Hillslope Profile Position: Summits, shoulders, backslopes
Parent Material: Sandy over loamy marine deposits or fluviomarine deposits
Slope: 0 to 10 percent
Elevation (type location): Unknown
Mean Annual Air Temperature (type location): 16.7 degrees C. (about 62 degrees F.)
Mean Annual Precipitation (type location): 1240 millimeters (about 49 inches)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Arenic Plinthic Kandiudults
Depth to top of Argillic horizon: 50 to 100 centimeters (about 20 to 40 inches)
Depth to base of Argillic horizon: 150 to more than 200 centimeters (about 60 to more than 78 inches)
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 200 centimeters (about 78 inches)
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: 100 to 150 centimeters or more (about 40 to 60 inches or more), January to March
Thickness of the sandy surface and subsurface layers: 50 to 100 centimeters (about 20 to 40 inches)
Content and Size of Rock Fragments: 0 to 35 percent, by volume, in the A, E, and BE horizons and 0 to 15 percent throughout the lower profile; mostly rounded nodules of ironstone
Organic matter content: 0.5 to 2.0 percent in the A horizon and less than 0.5 in E, B, and C horizons
(Effective) Cation Exchange Capacity: 2 to 10 milliequivalents per 100 grams of soil in the A horizon; 1 to 4 in E and B horizons; and 2 to 5 in the C horizon
Soil Reaction: Extremely acid to moderately acid, except where limed
Plinthite Content: Greater than 5 percent within a depth of 150 centimeters (about 60 inches) starting at a depth greater than 50 centimeters (about 20 inches)
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
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/georgia/screve...
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Hands pouring water from beaker into a test tube in lab at UMCP Greenhouse © Edwin Remsberg, High res download available from www.remsberg.com
The Bedford series consists of moderately well drained soils formed in loess and the underlying loamy material over a paleosol from clayey residuum. They are on hills underlain with limestone bedrock. They are very deep soils that are moderately deep to a fragipan. Permeability is moderate above the fragipan and very slow in the fragipan. Slopes range from 0 to 12 percent. Mean annual temperature is 56 degrees F, and mean annual precipitation is 42 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Fragiudalfs
The depth to the base of the argillic horizon is more than 80 inches. The loess mantle is 20 to 40 inches thick. Depth to the top of the fragipan is 20 to 38 inches. The rock fragments (pebbles) are mainly chert.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of these soils are used to grow corn, soybeans, wheat and hay. Some areas are used for permanent pasture, and a few areas are in forest. Native vegetation is mixed hardwood forest, chiefly oaks, maple, hickory, elm, ash, and hackberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mainly south-central Indiana, and to a lesser extent Kentucky, southern Illinois, Pennsylvania, and northwestern Tennessee. The soil is of large extent, and is dominantly in MLRA 122. The classification of this series is changed from a Fragiudult to a Fragiudalf. The gray colors in the 3Btb horizons are considered to be mottles, and not redoximorphic depletions.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BEDFORD.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Bonneau series.
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Deep, common
Flooding Frequency and Duration: None
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None
Index Surface Runoff: Negligible to medium
Permeability: Moderate
Shrink-swell potential: Low
Landscape: Lower, middle, and upper coastal plain
Landform: Marine terraces, uplands
Hillslope Profile Position: Summits, shoulders, backslopes
Geomorphic Component: Interfluves, side slopes
Parent Material: Marine deposits, fluviomarine deposits
Slope: 0 to 12 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, siliceous, subactive, thermic Arenic Paleudults
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Thickness of the sandy surface and subsurface layers: 20 to 40 inches
Depth to the top of the Argillic: 20 to 40 inches
Depth to the base of the Argillic horizon: 60 to 80 inches or more
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 80 inches
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: 40 to 60 inches, December to March
Rock Fragment Content: 0 to 15 percent, by volume, throughout
Soil Reaction: Extremely acid to slightly acid in the A and E horizons, except where limed and extremely acid to moderately acid in the B horizon
Other features: Content of silt in the particle-size control section is less than 30 percent. Some pedons have less than 5 percent plinthite nodules in the lower part of the B horizon.
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Crops
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--growing corn, soybeans, small grain, pasture grasses, and tobacco. Where wooded--mixed hardwood and pine, including longleaf and loblolly pine, white, red, turkey, and post oak, dogwood, and hickory.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Coastal Plain of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia
Extent: Moderate
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BONNEAU.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Mt Wellington - an uplifted mass of mostly dolerite formed around 180 million years ago from magma intrusions of much older mudstone (Permian deposits) and sandstone (Triassic deposits) with a peak elevation of 1271 m..
The large vertical columns of dolerite associated with south-eastern Tasmania rock outcrops such as the mountain 'pipes' (eg the 'Organ Pipes" of Mount Wellington and Ben Lomond) and the 'fluted' cliffs (eg Fluted Cape on Bruny Island) lead some geologists to conclude that the rock formed in sills within the mudstone and sandstone deposits. The much hardier dolerite rock is what remains in these outcrops long after the mudstone and sandstone has eroded away from around it.
The story:
A representative soil profile of an ashy over pumcieous, amorphic, isomesic Humic Udivitrand fro Ecuador. (Photo and comments courtesy of Stan Buol, NCSU.)
This profile was photographed at 31 minutes south latitude south of Quito, Ecuador on a 10% slope at an elevation of 3200 meters.The soil is formed in slightly weathered volcanic ash with a highly visible, white layer of pumice at a depth of 53 to 67 cm. Organic carbon content is over 2% in all horizons above the pumice and over 1% in all layers below the pumice to a depth of 180 cm.
The stratified arrangement illustrates the varied and sporadic nature of volcanic depositions. When ashy depositions are slight vegetation continues to grow and add organic carbon to the surface and root zone. A rapid deposition, in this case the pumice results in a contrasting layer subsequently buried by more recent depositions of contrasting material.
The constantly cool, 11 degrees C mean annual air temperatures (isomesic soil temperature regime) limit food crops to barley and potatoes.
____________________________________
Humic Udivitrands are like Typic Udivitrands, but they have a melanic, mollic, or umbric epipedon. They are of small extent and are known to occur only in the State of Washington. They commonly support coniferous forest vegetation. Most of the soils are used for timber production, but some have been cleared and are used as cropland.
Udivitrands are the more or less well drained Vitrands that have a udic moisture regime. Characteristically, these soils have an ochric epipedon and a cambic horizon. Some have an argillic horizon. Most of the Udivitrands in the United States developed in Holocene deposits under coniferous forest vegetation.
Vitrands are the more or less well drained, coarse textured Andisols. These are relatively young soils that occur mostly near volcanoes. Most of the Vitrands in the United States are in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Vitrands formed mainly under coniferous forest vegetation. Characteristically, Vitrands have an ochric or mollic epipedon and a cambic horizon. Most of the Vitrands in the United States developed in Holocene deposits.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
A Leptic Haplogypsid, petrogypsic from the interior of the UAE.
Leptic Haplogypsids are the Haplogypsids that have a gypsic horizon with its upper boundary within 18 cm of the soil surface. These soils do not have a lithic contact within 50 cm of the soil surface. In the United States they occur in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
The gypsic horizon is a horizon in which gypsum has accumulated or been transformed to a significant extent (secondary gypsum (CaSO4) has accumulated through more than 150 mm of soil, so that this horizon contains at least 5% more gypsum than the underlying horizon). It typically occurs as a subsurface horizon, but it may occur at the surface in some soils.
This pedon has a petrogypsic horizon at a depth of 100 to 200 cm and is identified as a "phase" in classification. In the UAE soil classification system, phases of soil taxa have been developed for those mineral soils that have soil properties or characteristics that occur at a deeper depth than currently identified for an established taxonomic subgroup or soil properties that effect interpretations not currently recognized at the subgroup level. The phases which have been identified in the UAE include: anhydritic, aquic, calcic, gypsic, lithic, petrocalcic, petrogypsic, salic, salidic, shelly, and sodic.
The petrogypsic horizon is a horizon in which visible secondary gypsum has accumulated or has been transformed. The horizon is cemented (i.e., extremely weakly through indurated cementation classes), and the cementation is both laterally continuous and root limiting, even when the soil is moist. Th e horizon typically occurs as a subsurface horizon, but it may occur at the surface in some soils.
Haplogypsids are the Gypsids that have no petrogypsic, natric, argillic, or calcic horizon that has an upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. Some Haplogypsids have a cambic horizon overlying the gypsic horizon. These soils are commonly very pale in color. They are not extensive in the United States. The largest concentrations in the United States are in New Mexico and Texas. The soils are more common in other parts of the world.
Gypsids are the Aridisols that have a gypsic or petrogypsic horizon within 100 cm of the soil surface. Accumulation of gypsum takes place initially as crystal aggregates in the voids of the soils. These aggregates grow by accretion, displacing the enclosing soil material. When the gypsic horizon occurs as a cemented impermeable layer, it is recognized as the petrogypsic horizon. Each of these forms of gypsum accumulation implies processes in the soils, and each presents a constraint to soil use. One of the largest constraints is dissolution of the gypsum, which plays havoc with structures, roads, and irrigation delivery systems. The presence of one or more of these horizons, with or without other diagnostic horizons, defines the great groups of the Gypsids. Gypsids occur in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, West Asia, and some of the most arid areas of the western part of the United States. Gypsids are on many segments of the landscape. Some of them have calcic or related horizons that overlie the gypsic horizon.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
Kaolin clay is derived from the mineral Kaolinite which comes from the Earth’s crust. It is a hydrous aluminum silicate formed by the decomposition of minerals such as feldspar. The mineral Kaolinite, also referred to as Kaolinite clay, is a layered silicate mineral and is soft, earthy, and usually white in color, produced by the chemical weathering of aluminum silicate minerals. Rocks that are rich in Kaolinite are also known as Kaolin or China Clay. This means the terms Kaolin clay and Kaolinite clay can be used interchangeably.
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
The Bismarck series consists of shallow, somewhat excessively drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in residuum from tilted and folded shale bedrock with thin strata of interbedded sandstone, chert, and novaculite. (Soil Survey of Montgomery County, Arkansas; by Jeffrey W. Olson, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Bismarck soils are nearly level to very steep soils on uplands of the Ouachita Mountains: MLRA 119. Slopes range from 1 to 60 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 62 degrees F, and the mean annual precipitation is about 52 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, thermic, shallow Typic Dystrudepts
Solum thickness and depth to shale ranges from 10 to 20 inches. Reaction ranges from medium acid to very strongly acid throughout.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in forest. Native trees are eastern redcedar, shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, post oak, blackjack oak, and red oak. Small acreages are used for pasture and hay.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. The series is of large extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/arkansas/AR097...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BISMARCK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A soil profile of a Torripsamment from the United Arab Emirates. (Classification by UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy)
Typic Torripsamments, carbonatic, hyperthermic, are very deep sandy soils with carbonatic mineralogy. They occur on hummocky undulating to rolling plains, or undulating sand sheets, and dunes or variable size throughout the Emirate. They are typically excessively drained or somewhat excessively drained and have rapid or very rapid permeability. Dominant vegetation species recorded include Cyperus conglomeratus and Haloxylon salicornicum.
Typic Torripsamments consists of the Torripsamments that are dry for more than three-fourths of the time when the soil temperature is 5 degrees C or higher. These soils do not have evident cementation by silica and are moderately deep or deep to a lithic contact. The limitation on moisture restricts the subgroup to the drier part of the range of the great group. The restriction against a lithic contact is the same one that is applied in Typic subgroups throughout most of this taxonomy. Many of these soils support more vegetation than other soils with an aridic moisture regime, perhaps because of rapid infiltration and a low available water capacity, which cause the precipitation to moisten the soils to a greater depth than in most other soils with an aridic moisture regime. Some water is stored below the soil moisture control section. Typic Torripsamments are moderately extensive in the Western United States. They are used mainly for grazing.
Torripsamments are the cool to hot Psamments of arid climates. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Many of these soils are on stable surfaces, some are on dunes, some are stabilized, and some are moving. Torripsamments consist of quartz, mixed sands, volcanic glass, or even gypsum and may have any color. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are nearly level to steep. The vegetation consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs, grasses, and forbs. Many of these soils support more vegetation than other soils with an aridic moisture regime, presumably because they lose less water as runoff. Some of the soils on dunes support a few ephemeral plants or have a partial cover of xerophytic and ephemeral plants. The shifting dunes may be devoid of plants in normal years. Most of the deposits are of late-Pleistocene or younger age. These soils are used mainly for grazing. They are extensive in the Western United States.
Psamments are the Entisols that have less than 35 percent (by volume) rock fragments and a texture of loamy fine sand or coarser in all layers (sandy loam lamellae are permitted) within the particle-size control section.
Entisols are the soils that have little or no evidence of the development of pedogenic horizons. Most Entisols have no diagnostic horizons other than an ochric epipedon. A few that have a sandy or sandy-skeletal particle-size class have a horizon that would be a cambic horizon were it not for the particle-size class exclusion. On many landscapes the soil material is not in place long enough for pedogenic processes to form distinctive horizons. Some of these soils are on steep, actively eroding slopes, on flood plains or glacial outwash plains that receive new deposits of alluvium at frequent intervals, or are wind-blown deposits. Most Entisols in the fine-earth fraction (<2mm) consist primarily of quartz or other minerals that are resistant to the weathering needed to form diagnostic horizons.
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
Soil profile: Layland cobbly silt loam. Disoriented rock fragments indicate that this soil formed in colluvium. (Soil Survey of New River Gorge National River, West Virginia; by Wendy Noll and James Bell, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well drained
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Class: Moderately high
Landscape: The Allegheny Plateau
Parent Material: Colluvium derived from sandstones and shales
Slope: 15 to 80 percent
Mean Annual Air Temperature (type location): 11 degrees C. (52 degrees F.)
Mean Annual Precipitation (type location): 1168 mm (46 inches)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, siliceous, semiactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
Depth to the top of the Cambic: 8 to 51 cm (3 to 20 inches)
Depth to the base of the Cambic: 76 to 152 cm (30 to 60 inches)
Depth to Bedrock: greater than 152 cm (60 inches)
Rock Fragment content (by volume): 5 to 60 percent in individual horizons of the upper solum, 30 to 90 percent in the BC and C horizons. The weighted average of rock fragments in the particle size class control section (25 to 102 cm) is 35 percent or more. Rock fragments are dominantly sandstone in the upper part. Fragments of siltstone and shale often increase in volume in the lower part of the profile.
Soil Reaction: Very strongly acid or extremely acid throughout the mineral soil, except where limed or affected by burning. Organic surface horizons are very strongly acid to moderately acid reaction.
Other soil features: The particle size control section averages 18 to 27 percent clay. Some pedons have a lithologic discontinuity to colluvium dominated by materials weathered from shale and siltstone below a depth of 92 cm (36 inches).
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Woodland and pasture
Dominant Vegetation: Oak-hickory or mixed mesophytic forests, largely depending on aspect; predominantly scarlet, black, white, red, or chestnut oak, red maple, pignut or mockernut hickory, yellow poplar, American Holly, and beech.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: West Virginia, Possibly Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Extent: Moderate
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/west_virginia/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/L/LAYLAND.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
"Laterite" is an antiquated term referring to hardened soil that contains large amounts of plinthite (litho-plinthite, petroplinthite: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11368-014-0896-2
Laterite is considered both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminum and most commonly formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolonged weathering of the underlying parent rock, usually when there are conditions of high temperatures and heavy rainfall with alternate wet and dry periods. Tropical weathering (laterization) is a prolonged process of chemical weathering which produces a wide variety in the thickness, grade, chemistry and ore mineralogy of the resulting soils. The majority of the land area containing laterites is between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
With laterite being referred to as a soil type as well as being a rock type with variation in the modes of conception--there has been calls for the term to be abandoned altogether. Material that looks highly similar to the Indian laterite occurs abundantly worldwide.
Historically, laterite was cut into brick-like shapes and used in monument-building. After 1000 CE, construction at Angkor Wat and other southeast Asian sites changed to rectangular temple enclosures made of laterite, brick, and stone. Similar materials in the US have not sufficiently hardened to be mined as building blocks. This material has been referred to as "soft" plinthite.
Laterites are a source of aluminum ore; the ore exists largely in clay minerals and the hydroxides, gibbsite, boehmite, and diaspore, which resembles the composition of bauxite. In Northern Ireland they once provided a major source of iron and aluminum ores.
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 Blanton sand. (Soil Survey of Screven County, Georgia; by Gary C. Hankins, Jr., Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Corn growing in an area of Blanton sand, 0 to 5 percent slopes. With proper management, such as irrigation, this soil can be productive for certain crops.
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, over 1 million acres.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/georgia/screve...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BLANTON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile of the Hoypus series. (Soil Survey of San Juan County, Washington; by By Michael Regan, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Hoypus series consists of very deep, somewhat excessively drained soils that formed in glacial outwash. These soils are on outwash plains and hillslopes and have slopes of 3 to 50 percent. Average annual precipitation is about 24 inches and the average annual temperature is about 49 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, isotic, mesic Typic Xerorthents
Particle size control section:
Rock fragments - 35 to 60 percent gravel, 0 to 10 percent cobbles, 0 to 5 percent cobbles and 35 to 75 percent total
Clay content - 0 to 5 percent
Solum thickness - 20 to 30 inches
USE AND VEGETATION: Timber production and homesites are the principal uses. Small areas are used for pasture. Potential natural vegetation consists of Douglas-fir and Pacific madrone. Understory species include Oregon grape, oceanspray, bald hip rose, brackenfern, honeysuckle, blackcap, and strawberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northwestern Washington. Series is moderately extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/washington/WA0...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/H/HOYPUS.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of Arnett sandy loam with gravelly layers below a depth of about 40 centimeters. (Soil Survey of Jackson County, Oklahoma; by Richard Gelnar, Clay Salisbury, and Scott Keenan, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Arnett series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils. These very gently to strongly sloping soils formed in loamy and gravelly alluvial sediments on stream terraces of mid Pleistocene age. Slope ranges from 1 to 12 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, thermic Typic Haplustalfs
Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Depth to secondary carbonates ranges from 10 to 50 inches with a calcium carbonate equivalent from 5 to 15 percent.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mainly used as cropland or pasture with some areas in rangeland. Some areas are surface mined for road aggregate and other construction materials. Major crops grown are forage sorghums and small grains. Native vegetation is a mixture of tall and midgrasses. Mesquite will invade if not controlled.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central Rolling Red Plains of southwestern Oklahoma and possibly north central Texas; LRR H (MLRA 78B, MLRA78C). The series is of small extent. The Arnett series was included with the Miles series in the Jackson County, Oklahoma 1961 soil survey. The series was originally established in Harmon County, Oklahoma in 1941 and later placed on the inactive soil list. The series is being reactivated to describe soils similar to the original concept of the series.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/oklahoma/OK065...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/A/ARNETT.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Flue-cured tobacco on gently sloping Hard Labor soils and on strongly sloping Wedowee soils. Flue-cured tobacco is a type of cigarette tobacco. Along with burley tobacco, it accounts for more than 90% of US tobacco production. Flue-cured farming is centered in North Carolina.
Note: In the past, both the Hard Labor series and the Wedowee series were mapped as inclusions with the Appling series.
Hard Labor soils are on broad nearly level to gently sloping summits and on sloping to strongly sloping side slopes in the southern Piedmont. Slopes typically range from 2 to 10 percent. There is a perched water table in late winter and early spring. The Hard Labor series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, slowly permeable soils that formed in material weathered from felsic igneous and metamorphic rock, primarily granite and granite gneiss.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Oxyaquic Kanhapludults
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the acreage is in cultivation or pasture and the remainder is in forests of mixed hardwoods and pine. Common crops are cotton, corn, soybeans, small grains, and to a lesser extent tobacco.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Southern Piedmont of Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and possibly Virginia. The series is currently of small extent but is anticipated to become of large extent with future examinations of areas in the Piedmont mapped as Appling, Durham, Vance, or Wedowee soils. In the past, these soils were mostly included with the Appling series in several soil surveys, including Franklin County, NC. However, Appling soils lack a perched water table or it is greater than 5.0 feet below the soil surface. To date, over 150,000 acres have been identified throughout the Southern Piedmont Region.
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/H/HARD_LABOR.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#hard%20labor
The Wedowee series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils with a relatively thin (< 24 inches thick) Bt horizon. They formed in residuum weathered from felsic igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont uplands. These soils are on narrow ridges and on side slopes of uplands. Slope is dominantly between 6 and 25 percent but ranges from 0 to 60 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are wooded. Common trees include loblolly pine, Virginia pine, red oak, white oak, post oak, hickory, blackgum, maple, and dogwood. Cleared areas are used for cotton, corn, tobacco, small grain, hay, and pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Piedmont of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The series is of moderate extent. Wedowee soils were formerly mapped as thin solum phases of the Appling series.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WEDOWEE.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:
Aquisalid Landscape, central Nevada — Salt crusts are visible at the soil surface in this Basin and Range landscape. Salts accumulate in low-lying areas of the basin as surface runoff and seasonal high water tables transport dissolved salts to or close to the soil surface. As water evaporates, the salts are left behind. Few plants are able to tolerate areas of the basin where high salt concentrations are greatest. (Image from the Soil Science Society of America Marbut Memorial Slide Set) (Notes and photo downloaded from: www.uidaho.edu/cals/soil-orders/aridisols)
Aquisalids are the salty soils in wet areas in the deserts where capillary rise and evaporation of water concentrate the salts near the surface. Some of these soils have redoximorphic depletions and concentrations. In other soils redoximorphic features may not be evident because of a high pH and the associated low redox potential, which inhibit iron and manganese reduction. These soils occur dominantly in depressional areas where ground water saturates the soils at least part of the year. The vegetation on these soils generally is sparse, consisting of salt-tolerant shrubs, grasses, and forbs. Although these soils may hold water at a tension less than 1500 kPa, the dissolved salt content makes the soils physiologically dry.
Salids are the Aridisols that have a salic horizon that has its upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. Salids are most common in depressions (playas) in the deserts or in closed basins in the wetter areas bordering the deserts. In North Africa and in the Near East, such depressions are referred to as Sebkhas or Chotts, depending on the presence or absence of surface water for prolonged periods. Under the arid environment and hot temperatures, accumulation of salts commonly occurs when there is a supply of salts and a net upward movement of water in the soils. In some areas a salic horizon has formed in salty parent materials without the presence of ground water.
The most common form of salt is sodium chloride (halite), but sulfates (thenardite, mirabilite, and hexahydrite) and other salts may also occur. The concept of Salids is one of accumulation of an excessive amount of salts that are more soluble than gypsum. This is implicit in the definition, which requires a minimum absolute EC of 30 dS/m in 1:1 extract (about 2 percent salt) and a product of EC and thickness of at least 900. As a rule, Salids are unsuitable for agricultural use, unless the salts are leached out. Leaching the salts is an expensive undertaking, particularly if there is no natural outlet for the drainage water. Two great groups are recognized—Aquisalids, which are saturated with water for 1 month or more during the year, and Haplosalids, which are drier.
For additional information about U.S. Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/cla...
Soil profile: The Fairpoint series consists of very deep, well drained soils. (Kentucky Soil Atlas; by Anastasios D. Karathanasis, University of Kentucky)
Landscape: Typical aerial view of mountain-top removal of coal and reclaimed landscape. These soils formed in materials derived from the surface mining of coal. Permeability is moderate or moderately slow. The regolith is a mixture of partially weathered fine-earth and rock fragments. Slopes range from 0 to 90 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, nonacid, mesic Typic Udorthents
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 152 cm (60 inches)
Depth Class: Very deep
Rock Fragment Content: The A or Ap horizon ranges from 15 to 60 percent, by volume. The C horizon ranges from 35 to 60 percent, by volume, averaging 45 percent.
Rock Fragment Size: 2 mm to 25 cm, but can include stones and boulders
Rock Fragment Type: Nonacid siltstone, shale, sandstone, limestone and coal
Fine-Earth Fraction: Averages 18 to 35 percent clay in the control section
Soil Reaction: Moderately acid through neutral, except where limed
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Wildlife habitat and recreational areas. The rough topography and coarse fragment content of unreclaimed areas make it impractical for agriculture and difficult for standard forest harvesting practices. Some reclaimed areas are used for hay or pasture, and increasingly, are also used for homesites. Reclaimed areas typically exhibit higher bulk densities, much lower saturated hydraulic conductivities and low organic matter in the surface horizon, making establishment of vegetation difficult.
Dominant Vegetation: Unreclaimed areas are naturally seeded deciduous forests with a few barren areas. Reclaimed areas are usually open grassland, including some legumes. A few reclaimed areas have been planted to trees, but mortality is high because of soil compaction.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia
Extent: Large, over 500,00 acres identified. Fairpoint soils were previously mapped as a variety of strip mine spoil and udorthents units.
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/F/FAIRPOINT.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Crider series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands. They formed in a loess mantle and the underlying residuum from limestone. Slopes range from 0 to 30 percent. Crider soils are on nearly level to moderately steep uplands. Many areas are undulating to rolling karst topography. The upper 20 to 45 inches of the solum formed in loess and the lower part formed in limestone residuum or old alluvium.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudalfs
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all of the soil is used for growing crops and pasture. The chief crops are corn, small grains, soybeans, tobacco,and hay; truck crops are grown in a few places. The original vegetation was mixed hardwood forest, chiefly of oaks, maple, hickory, elm, ash, and hackberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Pennyroyal and the western Outer Bluegrass of Kentucky; the northern part of the Highland Rim of Tennessee, Illinois and possibly northeast Arkansas. The soil is of large extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CRIDER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The agriculture of Brazil is historically one of the principal bases of Brazil's economy. While its initial focus was on sugarcane, Brazil eventually became the world's largest exporter of coffee, soybeans, beef, and crop-based ethanol. The success of agriculture during the Estado Novo (New State), with Getúlio Vargas, led to the expression, "Brazil, breadbasket of the world"
As of 2009, Brazil had about 106,000,000 hectares (260,000,000 acres) of undeveloped fertile land – a territory larger than the combined area of France and Spain. According to a 2008 IBGE study, despite the world financial crisis, Brazil had record agricultural production, with growth of 9.1%, principally motivated by favorable weather. The production of grains in the year reached an unprecedented 145,400,000 tons. That record output employed an additional 4.8% in planted area, totaling 65,338,000 hectares and producing $148 billion Reals. The principal products were corn (13.1% growth) and soy (2.4% growth).
The southern one-half to two-thirds of Brazil has a semi-temperate climate, higher rainfall, more fertile soil, more advanced technology and input use, adequate infrastructure and more experienced farmers. This region produces most of Brazil's grains, oilseeds (and exports).
The drought-ridden northeast region and Amazon basin lack well-distributed rainfall, good soil, adequate infrastructure and development capital. Although mostly occupied by subsistence farmers, both regions are increasingly important as exporters of forest products, cocoa and tropical fruits. Central Brazil contains substantial areas of grassland. Brazilian grasslands are far less fertile than those of North America and are generally suited only for grazing.
Histosols are organic soils have organic matter as the primary parent material. They occur when conditions allow organic matter to accumulate at a faster rate than it can be decomposed. This is usually under wet conditions such as a wetland.
Fibrists are the wet Histosols in which the organic materials are only slightly decomposed. More than two-fifths or more than three-fourths of the soil consists of fibers that remain after rubbing between the thumb and fingers.
Cryofibrists are cold Fibrists. The fibers may be derived from any plant, woody or herbaceous. These soils may freeze during the winter, or they may have a climate in which the soils do not freeze during winter in normal years but are cold in summer. In either situation, the low temperatures limit the use of the soils. Most of these soils support native vegetation.
Hydric Cryofibrists have a layer of water within the control section, below the surface tier. These soils are of small extent, mostly in the State of Alaska in the United States.
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.
To download the latest version of "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils" and additional technical references, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=s...
For additional information about soil classification, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/cla...
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/home/?cid=...
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 Nolin series (foreground and along drainageways) consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in alluvium derived from limestones, sandstones, siltstones, shales, and loess. These nearly level to sloping are on flood plains, in depressions which receive runoff from surrounding slopes, or on natural levees of major streams and rivers. Slope ranges from 0 to 25 percent, but is dominantly 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual temperature is 56 degrees F. and the mean annual precipitation is 43 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Dystric Fluventic Eutrudepts
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are used for growing corn, tobacco, soybeans, and hay. Forested areas are bottomland hardwoods, such as river birch, yellow-poplar, sycamore, elm, willow, boxelder, oak, hickory, and red maple. Many stream banks and narrow flood plains consist of native canebrakes.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: In areas of mixed limestones and siltstones, sandstones, shales, and loess in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia. The series is of large extent, over 500,00 acres.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/N/NOLIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#nolin
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/kentucky/chris...
The Crider series (background) consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands. They formed in a loess mantle and the underlying residuum from limestone. Slopes range from 0 to 30 percent. Crider soils are on nearly level to moderately steep uplands. Many areas are undulating to rolling karst topography. The upper 20 to 45 inches of the solum formed in loess and the lower part formed in limestone residuum or old alluvium.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudalfs
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all of the soil is used for growing crops and pasture. The chief crops are corn, small grains, soybeans, tobacco,and hay; truck crops are grown in a few places. The original vegetation was mixed hardwood forest, chiefly of oaks, maple, hickory, elm, ash, and hackberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Pennyroyal and the western Outer Bluegrass of Kentucky; the northern part of the Highland Rim of Tennessee, Illinois and possibly northeast Arkansas. The soil is of large extent, about 1,000,000 acres.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CRIDER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit: