LOCATION ALTON NY+PA

Established Series
Rev. RLM-WEH-TDT
05/2011

ALTON SERIES

The Alton series consists of very deep, well drained or somewhat excessively drained soils formed in gravelly glacial outwash deposits. These soils are on terraces, kames, alluvial fans and remnant beach ridges. Saturated hydraulic conductivity in the mineral soil is high above 40 inches, and is high to very high below a depth of 40 inches. Slope ranges from 0 to 45 percent. Mean annual temperature is 49 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation is 38 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Dystric Eutrudepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Alton gravelly sandy loam, on a 3 percent slope in a cultivated field. (colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)

Ap -- 0 to 7 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) gravelly sandy loam; light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; moderate medium and coarse granular structure; very friable; many fine and medium roots; 20 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick.)

Bw1 -- 7 to 16 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) gravelly sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; many fine and medium roots; 30 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.

Bw2 -- 16 to 28 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) very gravelly sandy loam; weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; very friable; common fine and medium roots; patches of clay films on the top and sides of pebbles; 40 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 11 to 40 inches.)

2Bw3 -- 28 to 41 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) very gravelly sandy loam; weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; very friable; few fine and medium roots; patches of clay films on top and sides of pebbles; 50 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary (0 to 18 inches thick.)

2Cl -- 41 to 63 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/2) very gravelly loamy sand; single grain; loose; few fine and medium roots; some evidence of stratification; 50 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.

2C2 -- 63 to 72 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/2) and brown (7.5YR 5/2) and pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) sand grains in stratified sand, gravelly sand, and gravel; single grain; loose; few roots; 50 percent rock fragments; slightly effervescent, slightly alkaline.

TYPE LOCATION: Cayuga County, New York; south side of gravel pit, 300 feet east of highway 370, 1/4 mile south of Houghtalling Road, about half way between Cato and Victory. USGS Victory, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 43 degrees, 10 minutes, 55 seconds N. and Longitude 76 degrees, 37 minutes, 32 seconds W. NAD 1927.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 25 to 60 inches. Carbonates are within the soil, at depths ranging from 40 to 80 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. In the textural control section, average content of rock fragments, mainly pebbles but including cobblestones and stones, is greater than 35 percent. Rock fragment content ranges from 10 to 50 percent by volume in the A horizon and the upper part of the B horizon, and 35 to 60 percent in the lower part of the B and C horizons. Fine and coarser sand ranges from 50 to 70 percent of the fine earth in the solum.

The Ap horizon has hue of l0YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Some pedons have an A horizon with hue of l0YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 3. It ranges from loamy sand to loam in the fine earth fraction. Reaction is very strongly acid or strongly acid unless the soil is limed.

Some pedons have a thin BE with hue 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 through 5. Texture is sandy loam to loam in the fine earth fraction. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid.

The B horizon ranges from l0YR through 2.5YR in hue, from 3 through 6 in value, and from 3 through 6 in chroma. The fine earth fraction of the B horizon above 20 inches ranges from sandy loam to loam; below 20 inches texture is coarser than loam. Coatings of clay, iron or organic matter are lacking or faint. The B horizon ranges from strongly acid to neutral. Some pedons have a BC horizon up to 20 inches thick.

The C horizon ranges from 5YR through 2.5Y in hue, value is 4 or 5 and chroma ranges from 2 through 4. Value of 3 is allowed where lithochromic influence comes from local dark shale deposits. The C horizon is stratified gravel and sand, loamy sand, or sandy loam, predominantly from sandstone, but some is from limestone and locally small amounts are from shale. Water-sorted unconforming silts and clays, and sand lenses with little or no rock fragments are allowed below depths of 40 inches.

COMPETING SERIES: The Cates and Pennichuck series are members of the same family. Cates and Pennnichuck soils have a paralithic or lithic contact within a depth of 20 to 40 inches.

Similar series in related families are the Chenango, Copake, Groton, Hoosic, and Tunkhannock series. Chenango, Hoosic and Tunkhannock soils lack carbonates within the soil. Copake soils have a contrasting particle-size control section. Groton soils have a sandy-skeletal particle-size control section.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Alton soils are on nearly level to very steep terraces, terrace faces, beach ridges, alluvial fans, and kames. They formed in glacial outwash and beach deposits dominated by acid, hard rock with material from limestone in the regolith below depths of 40 inches. In some places the substratum has silty lacustrine material below a depth of 40 inches. Slope ranges from 0 to 45 percent. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 degrees to 50 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 28 to 46 inches, and the frost-free season ranges from 120 to 180 days. The elevation ranges from 250 to 1000 feet above sea level.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the somewhat poorly and poorly drained Fredon soils and very poorly drained Halsey soils in adjacent low areas or depressions. Silty Unadilla and Williamson soils are on nearby stream terraces. Ontario, Stockbridge and Sodus formed in till and are associated on nearby uplands. The sandy Arkport and Colonie soils are on nearby remnant deltas.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained or somewhat excessively drained. The potential for surface runoff ranges from very low to high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity in the mineral soil is high above 40 inches, and is high to very high below a depth of 40 inches. In pedons that have a silty substratum, saturated hydraulic conductivity ranges to moderately low below 40 inches.

USE AND VEGETATION: Mainly cleared and used for growing fruit and vegetables; and some general farm crops. Native vegetation is dominantly sugar maple, beech, hemlock, pine, some basswood, hickory, and hophornbean.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Western, central and southern New York, and northern Pennsylvania. MLRA 101, 144A, and 140. The series is of large extent.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Lyons Area, New York, 1902.

REMARKS: The series was classified as Gray-Brown Podzolic soils in 1954 and listed as an Acid Brown Earth in the 1961 Key to the Soil Series of New York.

Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to a depth of 7 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 7 to 41 inches (Bw horizons).

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.