LOCATION FREDERICK VA+KY MD TN WVEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Paleudults
TYPICAL PEDON: Frederick silt loam on a 12 percent south southeast facing slope in a hayfield at an elevation of 2470 feet. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; many fine roots; 3 percent coarse angular chert gravel; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick)
Bt1--8 to 18 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) silty clay; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, moderately sticky and moderately plastic; common fine roots; many distinct red 2.5YR 4/8 clay films on faces of peds; 5 percent angular chert gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt2--18 to 35 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) clay; common medium distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) soft rock masses; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, moderately sticky, moderately plastic; few fine roots; many distinct red 2.5YR 4/8 clay films on faces of peds; 5 percent angular chert gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt3--35 to 51 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) clay; common medium distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) and reddish yellow (7.5YR 8/6) soft rock masses; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, moderately sticky, moderately plastic; many distinct red 2.5YR 4/8 clay films on faces of peds; 5 percent angular chert gravel; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bt4--51 to 72 inches; red (2.5YR 4/6) clay; common medium distinct reddish yellow (7.5YR 8/6) soft rock masses; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm, moderately sticky, moderately plastic; many distinct red 2.5YR 4/8 clay films on faces of peds; 10 percent angular chert gravel; strongly acid. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizon is 50 to 100 inches.)
TYPE LOCATION: Smyth County, Virginia; 1 mile west of Atkins, Virginia, 300 yards west of the mouth of Bear Creek, 1/2 mile north northeast of the intersection of State Route 622 and U.S. Highway 11, 150 yards south of old State Route 617. Longitude: 81 degrees 26 minutes 51 seconds West and Latitude: 36 degrees 52 minutes 10 seconds North. Atkins, Virginia USGS Quadrangle.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness is more than 60 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 72 inches. Depth to the top of the argillic horizon ranges from 0 to 20 inches. Variegated colors in the solum range from 40 to more than 60 inches below the soil surface. Rock fragments are mostly chert and range from 0 to 60 percent in the A, E, BA, and BE horizons, and 0 to 35 percent in the Bt, BC, and C horizons. In some areas the upper part of the solum is capped with as much as 20 inches of silty material. The soil ranges from very strongly acid through moderately acid, unless limed.
The Ap horizon has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 8. The texture of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam, loam, or silty clay loam.
The A horizon, where present, has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 1 through 4. In pedons that have chroma of 3 or less the layer is less than 7 inches thick. The texture of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam or loam.
The E horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 5 through 7, and chroma of 3 through 8. The textures of the fine-earth fraction is silt loam or loam.
The BA or BE horizon, where present, has hue of 2.5YR through 10YR, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 4 through 8. The texture of the fine-earth fraction is loam, silt loam, silty clay loam, or clay loam.
The Bt horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, the upper part includes 7.5YR, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 4 through 8. In most pedons skeletans are present in the upper part of the Bt horizon. In some pedons the lower part of the Bt horizon is multicolored in shades of red, yellow, brown and gray inherited from the parent material. The texture of the fine-earth fraction in the upper part of the Bt horizon is clay loam, silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay. It is silty clay or clay in the lower part.
The BC horizon, where present, has hue of 2.5YR through 10YR, value of 3 through 6, and chroma of 3 through 8. Most BC horizons are multicolored and do not have a dominant matrix color. Some have mixed colors. The texture of the fine-earth fraction is silty clay or clay. Slickensides are present in some pedons.
The C horizon, where present, is yellowish red or reddish yellow with few to many parent material related masses in shades of yellow, brown or red. The texture of the fine-earth fraction is silty clay or clay.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Macedonia and Sugarhol series in the same family. Macedonia soils have hue yellower than 5YR throughout the argillic horizon, the soils formed in a thin layer of loess and underlying residuum from clayey shale's, cherty dolomite or cherty limestone. Sugarhol soils can have hue yellower than 7.5YR in the argillic horizon and contains rounded pebbles and cobbles of sandstone and quartzite throughout the soil, the soil formed in old alluvium on mid- and high-level stream terraces.
Canmer, Lucketts, and Monteagle soils are in a related family and may become competitors as their classification is updated to the eighth edition of Soil Taxonomy. Canmer soils can have hue yellower than 7.5YR in the lower part of the argillic horizon, and contain rock fragments of sandstone and quartzite, the soil formed in old alluvium on terraces or uplands. Lucketts soil can have hue redder than 2.5YR in the argillic horizon, the soil formed in colluvium derived from quartzite and green stone overlying residuum derived from calcareous conglomerate in the Triassic Basin of the Piedmont Plateau. Monteagle soils have a higher sand content in the argillic horizon, rock fragments are sandstone, the soil formed in loamy residuum from acid sandstone formations on the Cumberland Plateau.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Frederick soils are on convex shaped uplands and are sloping to very steep. Slopes are mainly 2 to 15 percent, but may range from 0 to 60 percent. The soils formed in clayey residuum derived from dolomitic limestone with a small component of sandstone, siltstone, and shale. In some areas the upper part of the solum is developed in as much as 20 inches of silty material. The mean annual temperature ranges from 54 to 57 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 38 to 44 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Baxter, Bolton, Christian, Caneyville, Carbo, Clarksville, Duffield, Dunmore, Elliber, Endcav, Frankstown, Groseclose, Hagerstown, Marbie, Pisgah, Watahala, and Wyrick soils. Bolton, Duffield, Endcav and Pisgah soils are on similar landforms and have more than 35 percent base saturation; in addition, Bolton and Duffield soils contain less than 35 percent clay in the particle-size control section. Caneyville and Carbo soils are on similar landforms and have limestone bedrock at depths ranging from 20 to 40 inches deep. Clarksville and Elliber soils are on similar landforms and have 35 percent or more rock fragments by volume in the particle-size control section. Frankstown and Groseclose soils are on similar landforms and have sola less than 60 inches thick. Marbie soils have a fragipan and occur on colluvial footslopes, Watahala soils are on similar landforms and have a fine loamy over clayey particle-size class. Wyrick soils have a fine loamy particle-size class and occur on colluvial footslopes. Christian soils are in similar landscape positions and have less clay in the lower Bt horizon and bedrock between 40 and 80 inches.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderate. The potential for surface runoff is low to very high.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of these soils are cleared and cultivated. Crops are corn, small grain, hay, tobacco, and apple orchards. Most of the steeper areas are in pasture or forest. Vegetation is largely hardwoods such as oak, hickory, maple, and yellow poplar.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Tennessee. The series is of large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Frederick County, Virginia, 1914.
REMARKS: The type location was changed to Smyth County, Virginia in 1984. The original type location was destroyed by urban use.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone between 0 and 8 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Argillic horizon - the zone between 8 and 72 inches (Bt horizon).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Laboratory data are available for the type location in: Edmonds, W.J. and Rector, D.D., 1985. Properties and Classification of Residual Soils Derived from Cambrian and Ordovician Limestones and Dolomites in Southwestern Virginia. Bull. 85-10. Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Studies indicate that the Cation-Exchange Activity Class can be either subactive or semiactive. Either class or both classes can occur in representative mapunit delineations and are without relationship to mappable characteristics. Studies also indicate that the average content of clay in the particle size control section is 59 percent.
Frederick soils previously included kaolinitic mineralogy.
SIR = VA0059, VA0125 (GRAVELLY), VA0233 (STONY)
MLRA = 121, 122, 125, 128, 147
REVISED 7/7/93, MHC. Revised 02/21/02 by JRT and REP.