LOCATION BRASSFIELD         KY
Established Series
Rev. JAK:JMR
08/2001

BRASSFIELD SERIES


The Brassfield series consists of moderately deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in residuum weathered from interbedded calcareous siltstone, sandstone, shale, and limestone. These upland soils have slopes ranging from 6 to about 50 percent The average annual temperature is about 56 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is about 45 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, carbonatic, mesic Rendollic Eutrudepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Brassfield silt loam--on a 23 percent concave southeast facing slope in a pasture field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)

Ap--0 to 6 inches; dark gray (10YR 4/1) silt loam; moderate fine and medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 10 percent weathered calcareous siltstone and sandstone fragments; moderately alkaline, strong effervescence; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 10 inches thick)

Bw--6 to 18 inches; olive (5Y 5/4) silt loam; common medium distinct mottles of light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4), light olive gray (5Y 6/2), and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6); weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; few peds coated with dark gray from above; 10 percent weathered calcareous siltstone and sandstone fragments; moderately alkaline; strong effervescence; gradual wavy boundary. (7 to 20 inches thick)

C--18 to 36 inches; greenish gray (5GY 6/1), soft weathered siltstone and shale with common medium distinct mottles of light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) and pale olive (5Y 6/4) which breaks down readily by hand to silt loam or loam; relict platy structure; firm; few fine roots; 15 percent hard limestone and calcareous siltstone fragments; moderately alkaline, strong effervescence; clear smooth boundary. (10 to 30 inches thick)

Cr--36 to 40 inches; greenish gray (5GY 5/1) or (10GY 5/1) interbedded calcareous siltstones, sandstones, and limestones.

TYPE LOCATION: Madison County, Kentucky; 2.4 miles northeast of Union City on Union City-Doylesville Road, to intersection with gravel road leading east; thence along this road 0.4 mile east of the intersection, about 10 miles northeast of Richmond.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to rock is 20 to 40 inches. Thickness of solum is about 10 to 30 inches. Texture throughout is silt loam, loam, silty clay loam, or clay loam and the channery or gravelly analogues. Limestone, siltstone, or sandstone fragments from 2 mm to 3 inches across range from 8 to 30 percent.

The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR and 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 1 to 3. A1 horizons, where present, are 1 or 2 inches thick with hue of 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 1 or 2.

The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR, 2.5Y, and 5Y, value of 5 or 6, and chroma of 1 through 6. Colors are mottled with varied colors patterns. Some pedons are without dominant matrix color. Low chroma colors, where present, are inherited from the parent rock.

The C horizon has hue of 5GY, 10GY, or 5Y, value of 5 or 6, chroma of 2 or less, with yellowish brown and light olive brown mottles.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series currently listed in the same family.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Sloping to steep upland areas ranging from about 6 to 50 percent, commonly 12 to 30 percent. The regolith, commonly called marly shale, is the residuum or interbedded greenish gray limestones, calcareous siltstones, calcareous sandstone and shale. These rocks may be phosphatic. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 50 to 57 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 45 to 48 inches.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Beasley, Fairmount, Otway, and Shrouts series. Beasley and Shrouts soils have argillic horizons which are clayey. Fairmount and Otway soils have mollic epipedons and are clayey.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Runoff is medium or rapid. Permeability is moderate.

USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all areas have been cleared and are in pasture and/or brush. Originally, these soils were in grassy glades interspersed with hardwoods. The natural growth now is chiefly red cedar, chestnut oak, and red bud, ash, honey and black locust, elm, wild rose, sweet clover and wild legumes, grasses, and sedges.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Outer Bluegrass region of Kentucky marginal to the Knobs region, and perhaps in Ohio and Tennessee. Total extent is moderate, with estimated total acreage of 60,000.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Madison County, Kentucky; 1970.

REMARKS: Brassfield soils occur, it is believed, where former Otway soils became severely eroded and lost the mollic epipedon and clayey upper cambic horizon.

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 6 inches (Ap).

Cambic horizon - the zone from 6 to 18 inches (Bw).

Paralithic contact - at 36 inches (Cr).

ADDITIONAL DATA: Madison County, Kentucky. Sampled profiles S66Ky76-2 and S66Ky76-3, courtesy University of Kentucky, show 55 to 65 percent calcium carbonate equivalent in the B2 horizon.


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.