LOCATION AURORA NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Glossaquic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Aurora silt loam on a 4 percent slope in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap-- 0 to 8 inches; dark gray (10YR 4/1) silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 5 percent rock fragments; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick.)
E-- 8 to 13 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common fine and medium pores with thin clay linings in lower part; brown (10YR 5/3) ped faces; 5 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; clear irregular boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick.)
Bt/E-- 13 to 15 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silty clay loam; moderate medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; common medium pores with thin clay linings on surfaces along pores; brown (10YR 5/3), light gray (10YR 7/2) dry, ped faces; few medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron concentrations and common medium faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) areas of iron depletion; 10 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick.)
Bt-- 15 to 25 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silty clay loam; moderate medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; common medium and fine pores with thin clay linings on surfaces along pores; faint continuous clay films on ped faces; few medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron concentrations and common medium faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) areas of iron depletion; 10 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (6 to 16 inches thick.)
BC-- 25 to 32 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) silt loam; moderate fine and medium angular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; common medium and fine pores with thin clay linings on surfaces along pores; patchy, faint clay films on all faces of peds; many medium distinct dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) iron depletions, grayish brown (10YR 5/2) areas of iron depletion, and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron concentrations; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick.)
2R-- 32 inches; dark gray (10YR 4/1) calcareous shale bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Seneca County, New York; 100 feet south of Center Road, 1,000 feet East of Hall Road, 3 1/2 miles east of Village of Ovid. USGS Sheldrake, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 40 minutes, 22 seconds N. and Longitude 76 degrees, 44 minutes, 36 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments range from 0 through 30 percent in the A horizons and, from 2 through 35 percent, in the subsoil and substratum. Rock fragments are dominantly channers of shale, with some gravels or cobbles of siltstone, limestone, and sandstone. The soil ranges from strongly acid through neutral in the A horizon, moderately acid through slightly alkaline in the B horizon, and neutral through moderately alkaline in the C horizon, commonly becoming less acid with increasing depth.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 1 through 3. Texture is silt loam or loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is granular or subangular blocky and consistence is very friable or friable. Some pedons have a BA horizon just below the A horizon.
The E horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, values of 4 through 6, and chroma of 1 through 3. Texture is silt loam or loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is subangular blocky or platy and consistence is friable or firm. B/E horizons have colors and textures similar to the respective Bt and E horizons.
Some pedons have an E/B horizon.
The Bt horizon has hue of 5YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 5, chroma of 3 or 4. Redoximorphic features are present. Texture is silt loam, silty clay loam, or clay loam, and percent of clay ranges from 18 to 35 percent. It has angular, or subangular blocky, to prismatic structure and firm or very friable to consistence.
The BC horizon is similar to the Bt horizon except that clay films are less readily evident. In some pedons the BC horizon is replaced by, or underlain by, a C horizon which is massive or has plate like divisions.
The 2R horizon is dominantly horizontally bedded shale bedrock, but include some beds of siltstone, sandstone or limestone.
COMPETING SERIES: The Conesus, Danley, Grindstone, and Nunda series are members of the same family. All of these soils are more than 40 inches deep over bedrock.
The Angola, Benson, Farmington, Galway, Lairdsville, Manlius, Palatine, Riga, Wassaic, and Wilpoint series are members of similar families. Angola soils are wetter and have low chroma colors in the Bt horizon. Benson and Farmington soils are less than 20 inches thick over bedrock. Galway, Manlius, and Palatine soils lack argillic horizons. Lairdsville, Riga, and Wilpoint soils are finer textured in the solum. Wassaic soils have rock fragments in the soil dominated by limestone.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Aurora soils are nearly level through very steep soils in uplands where the till mantle is less than 40 inches thick over bedrock. Slope ranges from 0 through 75 percent. The soils formed in till mainly from shale similar to the underlying bedrock, but some areas are underlain by siltstone, limestone, and sandstone, commonly interbedded with shale. Mean annual temperature ranges from 46 degrees through 50 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 through 45 inches, and mean annual frost-free days ranges from 130 through 180 days. Elevation ranges from 350 thrrough 1500 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Angola, Cazenovia, Conesus, Danley, Hilton, and Lima soils. Angola soils are wetter associates. Cazenovia, Conesus, Danley, Darien, Hilton, and Lima soils formed in very deep till deposits.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is low through very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the mineral surface layer and moderately low to moderately high in the subsoil.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly cleared and used for growing corn, small grains, and hay. Where local climatic conditions are favorable, grapes and tree fruits are produced. Native vegetation is sugar maple, American beech, oak, black cherry, basswood, eastern white pine, and eastern hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Along the northern slopes of the Allegheny Plateau and the Mohawk Valley of New York. MLRA's 101, 140 and 141. The series is moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Erie County, New York, 1929.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typifying pedon:
(1) Ochric Epipedon - the zone from the surface to 8 inches (Ap horizon)
(2) Argillic horizon - the zone from 13 to 25 inches (B/E and Bt horizons)
(3) Glossaquic subgroup - as evidenced by interfingering of albic material around pedons in the upper part of the argillic horizon (B/E horizon), and low chroma mottles in the upper 10 inches of the argillic horizon.