LOCATION GATTON KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Fragiudalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Gatton silt loam - pasture. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--O to 6 inches, dark yellowish brown (1OYR 4/4) silt loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 1O inches thick)
Bt1--6 to 14 inches, strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; few fine pores; common clay films; slightly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (5 to 2O inches thick)
Bt2--14 to 22 inches, strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) silt loam; few fine faint pale brown (1OYR 6/3) and yellowish red (5YR 4/6) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; few fine pores; common clay films; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (O to 1O inches thick)
2Btx1--22 to 36 inches, yellowish brown (1OYR 5/4) fine sandy loam; common medium distinct reddish yellow (7.5YR 6/6) and gray (1OYR 6/1) mottles; moderate very coarse prismatic structure parting to very thick platy structure; very firm and brittle; few fine roots; between faces of prisms; many clay films and few clean sand grains on prisms; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (1O to 2O inches thick)
2Btx2--36 to 42 inches, strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) sandy clay loam; common medium distinct brownish yellow (1OYR 6/6) and gray (1OYR 5/1) mottles; moderate very coarse prismatic structure parting to fine angular blocky structure; very firm and brittle; few roots between prisms; common fine pores; many clay films and few clean sand grains on faces of prisms; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (O to 1O inches thick)
3Bt--42 to 65 inches, mottled red (2.5YR 4/6), brownish yellow (1OYR 6/8) and gray (1OYR 6/1) sandy clay; very thick platy structure with some vertical cracks; very firm; many clay films; few clean sand grains on vertical cracks; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Hardin County, Kentucky; 5O feet west of Kentucky 1135, 7/1O mile south of intersection with Kentucky 61, about 2 miles south of Elizabethtown.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to bedrock is more than 6O inches. Depth to the fragipan ranges from 2O to 3O inches. Except where limed, the soil ranges from strongly to very strongly acid. Rock fragments ranges from O to 5 percent by volume in the lower part of the solum.
The Ap horizon has hue of 1OYR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. The texture is silt loam.
The Bt horizons have hue of 7.5YR or 1OYR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 through 6, and they are mottled in shades of brown, yellow, or red, and in the lower part of some pedons in shades of gray. The texture is silt loam, loam, and silty clay loam or clay loam in the lower part of some pedons. Some pedons have silt loam BA horizons 3 to 7 inches thick with colors like the Bt.
The 2Btx horizons have hues of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 2 through 6. Mottles are in shades of brown, yellow, red, or gray. The texture is fine sandy loam, loam, or sandy clay loam. They have light gray silt loam, loam or fine sandy loam coatings which range from a few grains up to 5 mm. thick between prisms.
The 3Bt horizons have hues of 2.5YR through 1OYR, values of 3 through 6, and chroma of 4 through 8. Mottles are in shades of red, brown, yellow, or gray. The texture is clay, sandy clay or clay loam. Some pedons have a 5 to 15 inch 2Bt horizon of fine sandy loam or loam between the 2Bx and the 3Bt horizons.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Bartley, Clarksburg, Comly, Homewood, Jonca, Readington, and Wooster series. All of these soils lack a lithologic discontinuity within the solum. In addition, the Bartley and Readington soils have solum thickness of 6O inches or less; the Clarksburg and Comly soils have both high and low chroma mottles in the lower part of the Bt2 horizon; and the Wooster soils lack high chroma mottles in the lower part of the Bt2 horizon. Homewood soils formed in glacial till at Illinoian age. Jonca soils formed in a thin layer of loess and the under lying residuum from sandstone.
The Aldino, Ava, Boston, Cincinnati, Grantsburg, Hosmer, Lawrenceville, Mercer, Nicholson, Otwell, Rainsboro, and Zanesville series are closely related soils in the family of fine-silty, mixed, mesic Typic Fragiudalfs. In addition, the Aldino and Zanesville soils have solum thickness of 6O inches or less; the Ava and Boston soils lack high chroma mottling in the lower part of the B2t horizon; the Cincinnati, Grantsburg, and Hosmer soils have a degraded horizon overlying the fragipan; the Lawrenceville soils lack the lithologic discontinuity within the solum; the Mercer soils have a lower solum in weathered residuum of phosphatic limestone; the Nicholson soils have a lower solum below the fragipan with more than 35 percent clay; and the Otwell soils have a lower solum that is in stratified materials.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Gatton soils are on ridgetops and benches and in depressions and fan-shaped areas at the head of drainageways in uplands. Slopes range from O to 12 percent. The soils formed in a 15 to 3O inch silt loam mantle over unconsolidated material of sandstone and shale origin which slumped into sinkholes probably during an early cycle of karst erosion of the underlying limestone. Near the type location the mean annual temperature ranges from 52 to 57 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 42 to 49 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Nicholson, Crider, Sonora, and Riney soils. The Crider, Sonora, and Riney soils lack fragipans.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained with medium runoff. Permeability is slow.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are used for growing corn, small grain, tobacco, hay, and pasture. Native forests have oak, hickory, maple, dogwood, persimmon, and sassafras as the dominant species.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Pennyroyal region of Kentucky. The extent is small.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hardin and Larue Counties, Kentucky, 1975.
REMARKS: Reference data from the Geologic Quadrangle Elizabethtown, Kentucky, by Ray C. Kepfirle, 1966, USGS and UK.
Diagnostic horizons in the pedon are:
Ochric epipedon, 0 to 6 inches, Ap Argillic horizon, 6 to 65 inches, Bt1, Bt2, 2Btx1, 2Btx2, 3Bt Fragipan horizon, 22 to 42 inches, 2Btx1, 2Btx2
Classification only was changed in 7/94. Competing series and other items will be updated later.