LOCATION OLEAN NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Olean silt loam on a 3 percent slope in a cultivated field. (Colors are for most soils unless otherwise noted.)
Ap-- 0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 2 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 11 inches thick.)
BE-- 9 to 23 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; common fine roots; 2 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (8 to 16 inches thick.)
Bt-- 23 to 36 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silty clay loam; moderate medium and fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine pores; faint patchy grayish brown (10YR 5/2) clay films on all faces of peds and continious clay films on surfaces along pores; common medium distinct light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) areas of iron depletion and yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulations within the matrix; 2 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (8 to 14 inches thick.)
2C-- 36 to 72 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) very gravelly loamy sand; massive; loose; 55 percent rock fragments; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Cattaraugus County, New York; town of Olean, City of Olean, 250 feet South of Park Street. USGS Olean, NY topographic quadrangle. Latitude 42 degrees, 04 minutes, 33 seconds N. and Longitude 78 degrees, 27 minutes, 34 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to sandy or gravelly deposits range from 20 to 40 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Rock fragments are absent or less than 5 percent by volume in the surface layer and subsoil, and range from 0 to 70 percent in the substratum. Rock fragments are dominantly gravel or cobbles. Reaction, unless limed, ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid in the solum, and from very strongly acid to neutral in the substratum.
The Ap or A horizon has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is silt loam or very fine sandy loam. The A horizon ranges from 2 to 5 inches thick.
The BE or E horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 though 6, and chroma of 3 through 6. Texture is silt loam or very fine sandy loam. Structure is weak or moderate, fine or medium granular or subangular blocky. Consistence is very friable or friable.
The Bt horizon has colors similar to the BE horizon. Texture is silt loam or silty clay loam. Structure is weak or moderate, prismatic or subangular blocky. Consistence is friable or firm.
Some pedons may have a BC horizon with colors and structures similar to those of the B and C horizons, and textures of silt loam, loam, very fine sandy loam, loamy sand or sand.
The 2C horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. It is loose loamy sand or sand in the fine-earth fraction.
COMPETING SERIES: The Olean series is the only series in its family.
The Allard, Collamer, Scio, Swormville, and Unadilla Series are similar soils in related families. Allard soils have a coarse-silty over sandy or sandy skeletal particle-size control section. Collamer soils have a fine-silty particle-size control section. Scio and Unadilla soils have coarse-silty particle-size control sections. Swormville soils have an aquic moisture regime.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Olean soils are nearly level to sloping soils on outwash terraces, alluvial fans and high bottom stream terraces in glaciated areas. The solum formed in old alluvium or eolian deposits that form a silty mantle over sand and gravel glacio-fluvial or deltaic deposits. Slope ranges from 0 to 15 percent. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 45 inches; mean annual temperature ranges from 46 to 50 degrees F., and the frost free season ranges from 110 to 150 days. Elevation ranges from 400 to 1800 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The Olean series is the moderately well drained member of a drainage sequence that includes the well drained Allard soils, somewhat poorly drained Swormville soils, and poorly and very poorly drained Getzville soils. The Chenango, Castile, Middlebury, Tioga, and Valois soils are on associated landscapes. Chenango and Castile soils lack a silty mantle and are gravelly throughout. Tioga and Middlebury soils are on adjacent lower flood plains. Valois soils are in till deposits on nearby valley sides.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is low to medium. Permeability is moderate in the surface layer and upper part of the subsoil, moderate or moderately slow in the lower part of the subsoil, and rapid or very rapid in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas have been cleared and used for growing corn, hay or small grains. Native vegetation is mixed hardwoods of sugar maple, beech, northern red oak, white ash, black cherry and eastern white pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern New York and possibly northern Pennsylvania. MLRA 101, 127, 139, and 140. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Cattaraugus County, New York 2002.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in the typical pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to a depth of 9 inches (Ap horizon.)
2. Agrillic horizon - the zone from 23 to 36 inches. (Bt horizon.)
3. Aquic subgroup - low chroma redoximorphic features within a depth of 30 inches below the soil surface. (Bt horizon.)