LOCATION CROZIER CAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Ultic Haploxeralfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Crozier cobbly loam - forested (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated).
0--1 to 0; litter and duff.
A--0 to 10 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) cobbly loam, dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) moist; moderate fine granular structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and slightly plastic; many very fine and fine roots; many very fine and fine tubular and interstitial pores; slightly acid (pH 6.1); clear smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
AB--10 to 16 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) cobbly loam, dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) moist; weak medium subangular blocky structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and fine, and many medium roots; many very fine and fine tubular and interstitial pores; moderately acid (pH 6.0); clear smooth boundary. (3 to 6 inches thick)
BAt--16 to 23 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) cobbly heavy loam, dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) moist; massive; hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common fine and medium roots; many very fine and fine tubular and interstitial pores; common thin clay films lining pores and bridging mineral grains; moderately acid (pH 5.8); gradual smooth boundary. (5 to 8 inches thick)
Bt--23 to 36 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) cobbly clay loam, dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) moist; massive; hard, friable, sticky and plastic; many medium and coarse roots; many fine and medium tubular pores; many thin clay films lining pores and bridging mineral grains; strongly acid (pH 5.5); clear wavy boundary. (12 to 15 inches thick)
Cr--36 inches; weathered andesitic breccia that becomes less weathered with increasing depth.
TYPE LOCATION: El Dorado County, California; 4 miles SE of Placerville, along Woodland Drive; 0.25 mile south of NE corner sec. 27, T. 10 N., R. 11 E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to a paralithic or lithic contact is 20 to 40 inches. Mean annual soil temperature is about 47 to 57 degrees F. The soil between a depth of about 6 to 27 inches is usually moist but is dry in all parts for about 120 to 150 days from sometime in June until sometime in November. Rock fragments range from about 5 to 35 percent throughout the soil.
The A horizon is 10YR 4/4, 4/3, 4/2; 7.5YR 6/6, 5/6, 5/4, 4/4, 3/4, 5/2, 4/2, 3/2; 5YR 5/4, 4/4, 3/4, 5/3, 4/3, 3/3, 5/2, 4/2 or 3/2. It is sandy loam or loam and is gravelly, cobbly, or stony in some pedons. It is slightly acid or moderately acid. The lower boundary is gradual or there is an underlying AB horizon or BA horizon.
The Bt horizon is 7.5YR or 5YR 7/8, 6/8, 7/6, 6/6, 4/4, 5/6 and 5YR 5/8, 4/8, 5/6, 4/6, 5/4, 4/4, 5/3 or 4/3. It is clay loam or loam and is gravelly or cobbly in some pedons. It is 25 to 35 percent clay and less than 16 percent coarse and very coarse sand. It is slightly acid through strongly acid. Base saturation is 35 to 50 percent.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Boomer, Casabonne, Centralia, Cherryhill, Cle Elum, Cohasset, Dalig, Fives, Glenview, Gunn, Holland, Hood, Hotaw, Kalama, Latourell, McGowan, Musick, Para, Rosehaven, Speaker, Teanaway, Tigit, Trelk, Underwood, Varelum, Wilkeson and Wohly soils. All of these soils, with the exception of Cle Elum, Hotaw, Speaker, Tigit, and Wohly, are more than 40 inches deep to bedrock. Cle Elum, Speaker, Tigit and Wohly soils are dry for less than 120 days in most years. Hotaw soils have 16 to 26 percent coarse and very coarse sand in the control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Crozier soils are on plateaus. They formed in material weathered from lahar or extrusive volcanic rocks at elevations of 2,000 to 6,000 feet. Slopes range from 5 to 50 percent. The climate is moist, subhumid with dry summers and cool, wet winters. Annual precipitation is 30 to 70 inches. Mean annual temperature is 55 degrees F; average January temperature is 39 degrees F and average July temperature is 70 degrees F.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Aiken, Ledmount, McCarthy, and the competing Cohasset soils. Aiken soils are clayey. Ledmount are less than 20 inches deep. McCarthy soils lack an argillic horizon.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; slow to rapid runoff; moderate permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for timber production. Principal native trees are ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, white fir, incense-cedar, and black oak with understory of mountain shrubs.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The middle mountain area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. The soils are of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California
SERIES ESTABLISHED: El Dorado County, California, 1972.
REMARKS: This series was split from the Cohasset series mostly on the basis of being less than 40 inches deep to rock.
The activity class was added to the classification in February of 2003. Competing series were not checked at that time. - ET